UKSPA Breakthrough Issue 21

Community clusters

Working together to drive collaborative connections

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Contents

Advocacy

09 Basker's Net Zero zeal

Exeter Science Park’s CEO, Dr Sally Basker on its ambitious growth strategy, its innovative tenants… and the historic origins of GPS.

12 Labs2Zero Energy Score

Discover how to use the first tool released by I2SL's Labs2Zero program, the Labs2Zero Energy Score.

Support

14 Passion is her DNA

A look at the work of Life Sciences Hub Wales and its impact on the country’s health and innovation landscape.

18 HqO brings REX to life science communities

How digital technology is bringing innovation clusters and science-focused locations together to create virtual communities.

22 Challenges to recruit and retain Issues impacting recruitment decision making throughout the UK’s life sciences community.

Innovation

24 Architects with vision

Architects from global NBBJ practice outlined their innovative vision for regenerative lab space.

27 Marine model spawned at Oban

Discover how an innovative and ambitious project is transforming Scotland’s marine economy.

30 Lighting the future

An insight into how LED lighting is future-proofing plant-growth technology and agriculture.

Growth

32 Relationships key to Biomed

Biomed Realty’s commitment to life sciences, development philosophy and more.

35 Biopharma firepower

A global perspective of the biopharma market via the ‘Firepower’ research report from EY’s life sciences’ team.

40 A bright future for beamline technology

Design experts from Ridge have been tackling technical challenges at Diamond Light Source’s national synchrotron.

14

Impact

42 All eyes on the Arc

Latest data on the office and lab markets for life sciences within the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.

45 Bridging the skills gap in the UK's lab industry

Insight on how the lab industry can narrow its skills gap.

46 The transformational power of data

Exploring using technology to harness the power of people attributed data in buildings.

Trends

48 Innovation of the aerial kind

Two pioneers of digital aviation technology spoke about the science and the strategy behind their work.

52 A circular economy in the built environment

Mace Construct's Rob Lemming shares key findings from the insights report ‘Closing the Circle’.

UKSPA CHAIR, J OHN le AK e

Hot spots and the cluster revolution

At our UKSPA Conference at Coventry University Technology Park in November 2023, we had a very insightful presentation on the role of Investment Zones in supporting the development and growth of clusters in the UK. This was given by Andrew Carter of the Centre for Cities independent think tank.

In his presentation, Andrew shared analysis that the Centre for Cities had carried out to identify hot spots in the UK (www.centreforcities.org/publication/ innovation-hotspots-clustering-the-neweconomy/). Hot spots are defined as concentrations of “new economy” firms clustered over very short distances and having national significance. “New economy” firms are defined as using innovative and cutting-edge technologies to boost industrial production and economic growth. Therefore, the types of companies that we would expect to see on our science parks and innovation locations.

In total, 344 hot spots were identified right across the UK, predominantly in England but with some in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Around

UKSPA

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l Chief Executive James Chaffer l Head of Membership & Communications Adrian Sell

one-third of them were located in Greater London. By definition, urban areas are more likely to have hot spots due to the ability for these firms to be located in greater proximity in smaller physical areas. Around 55% of them were in City Centre areas and just over 30% in the suburbs of towns and cities.

These 344 hot spots were home to around 18,500 “new economy” firms. Although productivity in these hot spots was not higher than outside, their growth rates were around double what you would see in conventional firms.

What was interesting to me was to see how did UKSPA members locations correspond with these hot spots. Could we part of the dynamic driving force behind these hot spots?

We shared postcode data for UKSPA members with Centre for Cities and they came back with this analysis. One-third of UKSPA members had a science park or innovation location located in one of their hot spots. In total they constituted either wholly or in-part one in eight or 12.5% of the total hot spots and one in size or 16.5% of the hot spots outside London.

This data clearly demonstrates that UKSPA members make an important contribution to the high growth “new economy” in the UK. We provide valuable support, networks, facilities

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and expertise that helps enable the growth of these valuable companies in our national economy. In particular, outside those major city metropolises such as London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh which are well-known for their clusters and the economic growth and high skills jobs that come from them, we see UKSPA members in smaller cities and rural areas playing an important role in levelling up the UK.

Our challenge and opportunity is to get greater visibility and recognition for the important role we already play in supporting those businesses of the future. It is also to build consensus and collaboration with both the current government to be part of their “cluster revolution” but also with mayoral authorities and LEPs to help shape their local economies.

And the conclusions from Andrew Carter’s presentation - put Investment Zones where hot spots exist, ensure HEIs and large high technology employers act as anchors and avoid being too sector specific. Sounds a lot like science parks to me! ■

Please send your comments and feedback to the UKSPA team: info@ukspa.org.uk

Breakthrough is an Open Box Media and Communications publication produced in association with UKSPA.

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“And the winner is …”

those who have been involved with UKSPA for a while will know that it has become a tradition to celebrate important milestones in the association’s history with a major national conference, including a gala dinner and awards ceremony, tours, and opportunities for social networking.

Historically, these have taken place each fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the association’s founding members back in 1984 - which was detailed in the chair’s article in the previous issue of Breakthrough.

The last such conference was held at the University of Birmingham in the preCovid world of April 2019, and was jointly organised with S-Lab.

Planning for a stand-alone UKSPA 40th Anniversary Conference, to run from 16th-18th October 2024, is now well underway.

It is fitting that this will take place at the University of Warwick, whose own science park, the UWSP, has just marked the 40th anniversary of its official opening by the-then Prime Minster, Margaret Thatcher, with a celebration involving some of its original tenants, as well as current stakeholders and dignitaries.

Our conference will kick-off on the Wednesday afternoon with a variety of tours across the UWSP, and the wider university campus, including the Warwick Manufacturing Group facilities, before an informal reception and dinner in the evening.

Delegates will have a chance to learn about the history of innovation support and industry collaboration at the university, and its exciting future plans, as well as opportunities to catch up with old acquaintances and meet new ones.

Thursday and Friday will then see delegates getting down to the serious business of reflecting on the success of science parks and other innovation locations across the UK over the years, while looking to the challenges the

future brings, and discussing how members can be best placed to successfully tackle them.

The key conference themes will include Sustainability, The Future of Work, Digital innovation, Life Sciences, Venture Capital, Innovation Clusters & Hotspots and Making Science Parks Inclusive

Discussions will take place across both plenary sessions and themed break-out parallel sessions, where it will be possible to dig into the bones of these issues.

A range of high-profile keynote speakers, including government minsters, senior civil servants and leaders from the world of finance and business are being lined up to share their thoughts with delegates.

"Pl ANNIN g f OR A STAND - A l ON e UKSPA 40 TH A NNI ve RSAR y C ON fe R e NC e IS NO w well UND e R w A y. I T IS f ITTIN g THAT THIS w I ll TAK e P l AC e AT TH e U NI ve RSIT y O f wAR w ICK , w HOS e O w N SCI e NC e PARK , TH e U w SP, HAS JUST m ARK e D TH e 40 TH ANNI ve RSAR y O f ITS O ff ICIA l OP e NIN g."

However, it is vital that we also include the voices of UKSPA members and stakeholders in these discussions, so if there is a particular topic that you are passionate about, we would love to discuss speaking opportunities with you.

Thursday evening will see a black-tie gala dinner, which will include an awards ceremony and a celebrity speaker from the world of science & technology.

The full list of award categories and the nominations’ process will be announced shortly, but this is likely to include awards for environmental sustainability, building design, future of work, community building, partnerships, customer service, innovative & successful companies, as well as a ‘Newcomer’ category for inspirational young Science Park talent.

I encourage everyone to look at which awards might be applicable to them, as we really want to get as many members involved in the process as possible.

There will also be a variety of sponsorship opportunities available, from event partners to drinks, dinner and award sponsors, as well as the chance to host parallel sessions focused on specific topics.

Details of these will be announced in due course, but please do get in touch via the usual channels if you would like to discuss how to support UKSPA in hosting this major profile-raising event. ■

Please send your comments and feedback to the UKSPA team: info@ukspa.org.uk

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Advocacy

The world according to UKSPA and its members

Basker's Net Zero zeal

Exeter Science Park’s CEO, Dr Sally Basker, enlightened Ian Halstead about its ambitious growth strategy, its innovative tenants… and the historic origins of GPS.

hedy Lamarr is immortalised on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her 20-year film career, most notably in Cecil B DeMille’s 1950 epic ‘Samson and Delilah’.

However, her name also lives on at Exeter Science Park, after CEO Dr Sally Basker decided to honour individuals who challenged conventional thinking to inspire future generations.

Sir Isaac Newton and Alan Turing were noted on two of its latest ‘grow-on’ buildings, and Lamarr was chosen for the third, to mark her creation of an advanced radio guidance system with her business partner in 1942.

Their ‘frequency hopping’ spectrum concept was decades ahead of its time, and the patent expired before she or pianist George Antheil received a cent for their innovation.

However, they did receive much belated acclaim for their idea, which was the catalyst for wi-fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

By coincidence, Basker’s doctoral thesis centred on the latter technology, so she was particularly pleased to see Lamarr’s name selected by a local youngster, from a seven-strong shortlist, along with Newton and Turing.

She arrived at the park in Q1 2017, after its shareholders (Exeter City Council, East Devon District Council, the University of Exeter and Devon County Council) looked to bring in high-value jobs, enhance productivity and deliver growth in the regional economy.

Then there were fewer than 200 people on the 64-acre site, close to J29 of the M5, but it now has some 750.

With all the infrastructure required for future expansion now in place, a raft of new tenants, corporates, SMEs and

start-ups, snugly settled into their space and the pandemic’s impact in the rearview, it’s time for an ambitious STEMMfocused growth phase.

“It’s now about looking ahead to when 3,000 people are based here, and the route by which we get there,” says Basker.

“We have established clusters around life sciences, security, defence, the Net Zero built environment, advanced manufacturing and SaaS.

“I’m very proud of what our clients are achieving, how my colleagues have helped them grow and it’s also satisfying to see that companies have stayed with us as the park has evolved into a mature employment location.”

SO l ID ST r ATE g IES

Before reaching Devon, Basker worked in a range of roles in both public and private sector, including a two-year spell with the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Although she is typically modest about her role, describing it simply as ‘business development’, the strategy Basker devised and implemented there delivered a £20m order book - and one with solid margins.

Her previous project was to restructure the UK’s three General Lighthouse Authorities, where she created a two-year change programme, and then directed the resultant £8m portfolio of projects across three years.

Thoughtfully understated she may be, but it’s easy to see why the park’s HR advisers and board of directors were impressed by Basker’s skillset and experience back in 2017.

Any would-be chief executive can waffle on about ‘strategic visions’, and many frequently do, but the recruitment benchmark for such a role should always be to identify someone who can identify destinations - and also knows how to reach them.

It was perhaps an intellectual sign of things to come that Basker’s PhD thesis focused on the use of navigation technology.

However, her first degree was in civil engineering, a particularly useful qualification for someone leading a science park through an expansion phase, where the provision of new space via chunky development projects is required.

Basker’s colleagues quickly realised that when she inquired about the PC timetable, she was referring to ‘practical completion’ and not wondering when East Devon’s constabulary might be passing by.

“It is very enjoyable at this stage of my career to return to the built environment, to assemble different elements around technology, R&D and innovation, and then to pull everything together to deliver a science park,” she admits.

Exeter’s Net Zero strategy has been in place for some time, its first building designed and delivered to meet exacting sustainability standards completed in Q1 2021, and Basker is understandably proud that it achieved an EPC rating of A+.

A second has since been completed, the science hub is currently being retrofitted to improve its EPC from a B to an A, and the park hopes to replace gas power by district heating via waste-to-heat plants.

Basker is confident that the completion of the latter programme will lift the park’s overall EPC rating to A+, a very tangible sign for current and prospective tenants that the built environment strategy is achieving its goals.

M IND f U lly MODE r N

She’s also delighted that the park has attracted the UK’s first Net Zero hotel, which will operate under the IMG Hotels & Resorts brand and be managed by Valor Hospitality.

“It is challenging to adopt ESG ethics, whilst not diminishing the guest experience, but we are looking forward to welcoming everyone on our journey,” says Tim Wheeldon, the MD of Zeal Hotels.

Someone within IMG dubbed the design “mindfully modern” – a delightful choice of words, and which should be a welcome in itself.

Construction of the 142-bedroom solar-powered hotel began last summer, is on schedule and in January, it was revealed that the

property had achieved a BREEAM design rating of Outstanding, rather than the previous, and already very demanding, goal of Excellent.

“It’s a very exciting project because it shares so many of our ambitions. They’re working very hard to make the voco Zeal Hotel not just Net Zero in operational terms, but also through the construction process,” says Basker.

“Equally though, for all the built environment we’ve achieved, and that Zeal expects to achieve, Net Zero has to be about continuous improvement and progress.

Below: With a design dubbed 'mindfully modern', exeter Science Park has attracted the UK's first Net Zero hotel

“We’ve already deployed two very large transformers to power EVs, are working with one of our tenants (BINIT) to make our waste management sustainable and are also using reconditioned furniture, for instance.

“Above all, we always question what we are doing about all aspects of our operations, whether that is the IT or someone’s rubbish, because you can’t ever sit back and think you’ve achieved something on Net Zero.”

Basker and her team operate to five-year strategic plans, and the current one offers an insight into its forensic detail, by showing that a conference is already scheduled for February 2025, as the hotel is due to complete in the previous December.

“It’s the best way to overcome possible challenges created by working to individual financial years,” she says, with the delight of someone who embraces both the structure and the minutiae of organisation.

Above: the net zero carbon george Parker bidder building at exeter Science Park opened in 2022

CATC h IN g T h E E y E Basker confesses there are simply too many highlights from 2023 to mention them all, but the achievements of some deserve note.

Diagnexia, which provides remote pathology diagnostic services to NHS trusts across the UK, via operations in Exeter, Toronto and Chicago, has expanded its presence to 1,800 sq ft, which Basker calculates is a sixfold increase on its original tenancy just two years ago.

Another tenant, Attomarker, is a key member of a consortium

researching innovative techniques to tackle the persistent and debilitating virus often referred to as ‘Long Covid’.

Exeter Eyewear, which came to the park in March 2023, creates custom-designed fittings aids and spectacles from novel materials, such as polyamides, for young children unable to wear standard designs because of either their age or disability.

Theta Technologies has acquired international note for its nondestructive testing technologies, designed to cope with the multiple challenges of using additives to manufacture metal components.

The company has also established a partnership with a company on Plymouth Science Park which has expertise in additives and sends samples of metal to Theta for testing.

As she reels off the lengthy list of tenants who caught her eye, it’s evident that Basker has a genuine passion for innovation.

“We hosted the opening event of the British Science Festival, so it was great to meet people from across the UK and hear about their work,” she recalls.

“There’s so much talk about what’s happening in the OxfordCambridge Arc, but I think many visitors were surprised to discover that so much is happening around life sciences in this region, and which is making an impact globally.

“The investment specialist FSE Group, which manages the debt finance and equity finance element

of the £200m South-West Investment Fund for the British Business Bank (BBB), opened an office here in November, and they’ll be a great asset for the regional economy.

“In February, we hosted an informal ‘Meet the Funder’ session with the BBB, to offer tenants and local enterprises into the mindset of investors, help them think more deeply about their own business model and consider what finance they might be able to access.”

Although Basker naturally enthuses about the growth of her science park, and the manifold achievements of its tenants, she also takes a nuanced view of the merits of regional collaboration.

“We work, for example, very closely with Plymouth Science Park, Torbay’s electronics and photonics’ innovation centre (EPIC) and other sub-regional organisations and science locations,” she says.

“We’re all trying to grow the regional economy, to attract more high-quality jobs and to improve productivity, which has bedevilled the UK economy for many years, and none of us can achieve those outcomes if we compete against each other.” ■

For more info about Exeter Science Park, its growth trajectory and Zeal’s Net Zero hotel, please visit: https://exetersciencepark.co.uk

Find out more detail about Ms Lamarr’s far-sighted nous at: www.womenshistory.org/educationresources/biographies/hedy-lamarr

Below: the solar-powered hotel has achieved a breAAM design rating of outstanding

T HE L ABS2ZERO E NERgy SCORE

A new way to look at lab buildings

In this latest article in the series from the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories, we introduce I2SL’s major new initiative, the Labs2Zero program, which aims to decarbonize the world’s lab buildings, and we explain how to use the first tool released by the program, the Labs2Zero Energy Score

The urgency of decarbonising our building stock has never been clearer, and laboratories in particular pose a great opportunity for improvement in this area.

I2SL is dedicated to helping lab buildings, which typically have high greenhouse gas emissions intensity, to lead the way. I2SL’s Labs2Zero program is a voluntary initiative designed to support and accelerate the decarbonisation of the world’s laboratory buildings.

The program was launched in late 2022, and over the next few years I2SL will develop a suite of Labs2Zero tools: a rating system to assess building performance; a certification system to recognise success; an accreditation program to ensure that professionals are available to support program users; and the tools to enable lab owners to identify next steps and take action to decarbonise their buildings.

The Labs2Zero rating system will include scores for building energy performance and both operational and embodied emissions. Users will thus receive an at-aglance picture of the energy

in October of 2023. Pilot versions of the operational and embodied carbon scores are in development and are planned for release in 2024.

f I r ST O f ITS KIND

and emissions performance of a lab building, allowing for prioritisation of attention within a portfolio of buildings or for tracking of performance over time.

The Labs2Zero Energy Score is the first piece of the scorecard to be released; its launch was the headline event of I2SL’s Annual Conference in Anaheim, California,

Below: Use i2Sl's laboratory benchmarking tool to enter the building properties and annual energy usage to calculate your score

The Labs2Zero Energy Score is unique because it recognises that lab buildings are not a monolithic or homogeneous group. Functional requirements vary significantly from one lab building to another –physics teaching labs do not have the same intensity of requirements as chemistry research facilities –and so lab building energy performance needs to be rated based on lab-specific properties.

To develop the score, I2SL collaborated with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States to analyze a dataset of approximately 1,000 lab buildings and develop adjustment factors for lab-specific functional requirements such as the amount and type of lab space within a facility. The scoring method also corrects for weather variations. Lab buildings are scored on a 1-100 scale, where a score of 80 means that that lab’s energy

left: Author of this article: Alison Farmer, Secretary of the board, international institute for Sustainable laboratories (i2Sl)

performance is better than 80% of other lab buildings. The details of the score development and methodology were published in a white paper, listed at the end of this article.

SEE y OU r SCO r ES

To see your lab building’s Energy Score, simply enter the building’s properties and annual energy usage into the Laboratory Benchmarking Tool (LBT) at https://lbt.i2sl.org. This tool is free to use and is operated by I2SL. Scores are free to obtain and the process is quick; see the Quick Start Guide listed at the end of this article for details. If you already have buildings entered in the LBT, your scores have already been calculated – simply log in and go to the Energy Score tab.

Using the Energy Score to rate lab building energy performance makes comparisons easier between lab types and across national boundaries. The LBT is fully internationalised and buildings can be entered from anywhere in the world.

Please note that the scoring system was developed using data from buildings in the United States, and so the scores correspond to comparisons against U.S. buildings. However, this does not decrease the Energy Score’s utility as a way to track progress over time and to make comparisons among a portfolio of facilities. I2SL also hopes that municipalities and others running building performance programs will encourage the use of the Energy Score in their programs and, once it is released, the Emissions Score for labs.

f EEDBACK IS w E l COME

The Energy Score is currently in a pilot phase, so we welcome all comments and feedback, and are particularly interested in obtaining more non-US participation and data.

NEXT STEPS

The LabsZero program aims to not only rate lab buildings’ energy and

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emissions performance but also to guide owners towards the next steps on their decarbonisation journeys. I2SL is currently developing an Actionable Insights and Measures (AIM) Report, which will generate projected energy and emissions reductions along with cost estimates for a wide range of building improvement measures.

This automatically generated report will also include relevant case studies and advice from I2SL’s community of experts. A first version of the AIM Report tool, focused on existing buildings, is planned for release in late 2024.

A COMMUNIT y E ff O r T

One of I2SL’s strengths is in bringing together industry experts to share their knowledge.

Our community is an integral part of the development of the Labs2Zero program. Over 100 volunteers, including some from the UK, serve on Labs2Zero Technical Advisory Councils dedicated to various aspects of the program. I2SL is also fortunate to have the support of many industry sponsor organisations, each of whom has shown their dedication to decarbonisation by supporting I2SL’s efforts to create the Labs2Zero program.

It is thanks to the contributions of those volunteers and sponsors that the Energy Score is available at no cost to users. ■

Stay tuned for updates as more program components are released in the coming year. For more information about the Labs2Zero program, please contact I2SL at info@i2sl.org

Resouces and references:

• The Laboratory Benchmarking Tool (https://lbt.i2sl.org)

• Labs2Zero (www.i2sl.org/labs2zero)

• The Labs2Zero Energy Score and the Quick-Start Guide (www.i2sl.org/ lab-energy-score)

• Labs2Zero Energy Score technical white paper (linked from https://lbt.i2sl.org/ energy-score)

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PASSION IS HER DNA

if a week is considered a long time in politics, it’s tough to imagine what might fairly describe five years in the equally demanding environment of healthcare, particularly in a national and high-profile role.

However, although it was November 2018 when Cari-Anne Quinn was appointed CEO of Cardiff-based Life Sciences Hub Wales, her infectious enthusiasm and passion remains undimmed.

Her previous role as head of life sciences for the Welsh government gave her insight into the benefits innovative technology could deliver, and time overseas with the Welsh Development Agency helped her learn how to collaborate effectively with corporates large and small.

Even so, it’s impressive that well into her sixth year, Quinn remains such an effervescent ball of energy

that it’ll be a miracle if her Apple watch doesn’t need replacing long before its guarantee expires.

Asked to explain how Life Sciences Hub Wales works, she is pleasingly precise.

“Our remit, which was unveiled in the summer of 2018, was to work for both the health and economic directorates of the Welsh government, focusing on health innovation. We embrace the strategic themes of digital and precision medicine.,” says Quinn.

“Put simply, we are a health innovation organisation working for both NHS Wales and the country’s social care sector to improve patient benefits, identify projects where efficiencies could be introduced to their systems and working directly with industry to grow the economy.

“We see ourselves as a catalyst for innovation, by bringing the right partners together to help such innovations to progress, by

right: ceo of life Sciences hub Wales, cari-Anne Quinn

Ian

Halstead looks

at the work of Life Sciences Hub Wales, and its impact on the country’s health and innovation landscape.

convening the right events, ensuring that the right people are in the room and encouraging collaborative discussions.

“We also work very hard to support businesses, whether they are start-ups, spinouts, national enterprises or international corporations, to achieve long-term growth.

“A key focus for us is helping entrepreneurs progress their ideas and innovations, to make them relevant to people across the country and to help them expand their economic and employment presence.”

Below: the All-Wales robotic Assisted Surgery Programme is revolutionising access to cutting-edge robotic-assisted surgery for cancer patients throughout Wales

Quinn’s time at the organisation bookends the unsettling and often chaotic period of the pandemic, which inevitably impacted how people of all ages now view the provision of healthcare.

“In general, I think there’s a greater awareness of the benefits which technology can deliver in the context of healthcare, and all generations have also become more used to the concept of remote testing,” she says.

“We see many individuals taking a more active role in monitoring their own health, and taking a little more responsibility, and for some, also helping to manage their own journey as patients.

“It’s been also very satisfying to see the progress we’ve made partnering with stakeholders who in turn work more closely with all segments of the population, to encourage them and support them to take more responsibility for their health, and to think about their diet, their lifestyle and their level of activity.”

Technological advances occur at remarkable pace during global heath epidemics, so it was timely that a digital focus was embedded into the strategic mindset of Quinn and her colleagues, long before most people had even heard of Wuhan.

It’s impossible to identify all the corporates and SMEs currently working with Life Sciences Hub Wales, but one intriguing project involves a company specialising in the use of AI.

“We hear a great deal in the media around ‘bed-blocking’, where patients are physically able to go home, but can’t because of issues around support services, which understandably is very emotional and upsetting for everyone involved,” says Quinn.

“In January, I spent time with Faculty, who are working with the Hywel Dda University Health Board, to support patients as they enter and leave the healthcare system.

“The technology uses AI to surface an estimated date of discharge for patients as soon as they are admitted. This information, alongside a programme of change management work across the health board, facilitates proactive planning for patients’ release from the hospital.”

There was significant collaboration to support its adoption, and Quinn says Hywel Dda and Faculty worked tirelessly to make sure teams were equipped with tools and confidence to use this technology in their jobs.

After spending time tailoring the solution, training, and encouraging the teams to use the Frontier system, it went live in Q1 2023, and she identifies “tangible improvements” in the way the local health network is running.

Four hospitals currently use the service, and there’s an opportunity that other locations may consider using it across Wales.

Quinn has an equally noteworthy tale to recount about the second core element of Life Sciences Wub Wales’s strategy –precision medicine.

“One of the government’s key aspirations is to improve diagnosis of all cancers, we work closely with

the Welsh Cancer Network, and support a group of industry and health partners (the Wales Industry Cancer Forum) to enhance the treatment pathway,” she says.

“Bringing all these key individuals together creates a very rich dialogue, and it’s quite inspiring to see how everyone puts their competitive instincts to one side and engages in a very collaborative and productive way to develop and enhance the technology.

“Partners are looking at everything from diagnostics and point-of-care testing - in a hospital setting or at a GP surgery - to delivering advanced treatments based on cell and gene therapies which have the potential to transform the condition of patients.”

MAKIN g h EAD l INES

Her favourite precision medicine project during 2023 was based on genomic sequencing to provide earlier diagnosis of lung cancer.

“In common with other advanced and industrialised nations, many patients in Wales suffering from lung cancer are not identified until their condition is advanced, often stage three or even stage four, so reducing the delay in diagnosis is crucial,” says Quinn.

“The QuicDNA project, launched a year ago by multiple partners including health boards, industry, government and the third sector, is evaluating the use of a simple blood test to extract DNA samples from suspected lung cancer patients. The diagnostic process can be shortened by up to 30 days via genomic analysis.

“Like the Faculty system, partners are looking to extend its use by other health boards during 2024, and the long-term aspiration is that it can be rolled out across Wales, which would make us the first UK nation to routinely use liquid biopsies for patients.

“They’re a simple and noninvasive alternative to tumour biopsies and can be used much earlier in the diagnostic pathway, and they will allow lung cancer patients to start treatment earlier than at the moment.”

TIME ly f OCUS

QuicDNA’s huge potential was noted in December at the MediWales Innovation Awards, when the programme won the ‘NHS Wales working with industry’ category.

It has also made headlines of a different kind via the heartbreaking story of Craig Maxwell, who worked for the Welsh Rugby Union before becoming the chief commercial officer of Six Nations Rugby.

After completing a charity bike ride from Cardiff to Paris, he made the shattering discovery that the chest pains he felt were a sign that he had stage four lung cancer, which was both inoperable and incurable.

“He had a rare form of nonsmoking related lung cancer and there were 78 days between his first biopsy and his diagnosis,” recalls Quinn.

“He heard of QuicDNA from his consultants and as soon as he’d been able to digest the news with his family, he set out on a series of fund-raising activities to generate revenue for the programme.”

Among Craig’s achievements are climbing all Welsh peaks of more than 3,000 ft in less than 24 hours and completing charity rides from Paris to Bordeaux and from Cardiff to Tenby.

“He’s clearly a remarkable individual, has already raised more than £500,000 and his efforts will enable QuicDNA to be rolled out to

other health boards quicker than would otherwise have been possible,” says Quinn.

EU r OPEAN S h O w CASE

Another notable project has been Life Sciences Hub Wales’s collaboration with multiple research and industrial partners on the use of robotic surgery, and the implementation of a single operational platform across Wales.

Quinn was invited to present details of the revolutionary All-Wales Robotics-Assisted Surgery Programme to the European Parliament last winter.

“We were only one of two European regions showcasing this technology at the European Parliament and it was fantastic to see Wales positioned as a country which embraced innovations to improve medical outcomes and patient pathways,” she says.

“Health innovation is by its nature a long-term journey, so it’s crucial in the short-term to ensure that your strategic partnerships are always operating as intended, and that everyone is aligned to the need to identify potential innovations across the technological landscape.

Above: the team from the QuicdNA project, which evaluates the use of a simple blood test to extract dNA samples from suspected lung cancer patients

Below: cancer patient craig Maxwell's series of fund-raising activities have raised more than £500,000 towards the QuicdNA programme

care, to ensure our services are meeting the requirements of all patients and people living anywhere in the country.”

The new programme has also had unexpected spin-off benefits for NHS Wales, in the constant battle to attract and retain talented individuals.

“We’re being told by our medical teams that embracing advanced technology attracts talent,” says Quinn.

“Individuals who have already invested so much in their training, and their understanding of the benefits of such technology, want to work with organisations and teams who are basing their approach on new platforms and new models.”

Quinn’s final thought before she returns to continue planning for the next five-year cycle of Life Sciences Hub Wales’ operations is her most telling.

“Our key aspiration is to maximise the adoption of technologies, but everything we do is based on the needs of patients,” she says.

“For us, we take our lead from NHS Wales across health and social

“It’s crucial to identify where treatment timescales need to be reduced, and then to bring in the clinicians to see how we can achieve our goals through collaborations, but every solution has to be based on a demonstrable clinical need.” ■

For more information about the work of Cari-Anne Quinn and her colleagues at Life Sciences Hub Wales, please visit: https://lshubwales.com

HqO brings REX to life science communities

Ian Halstead looks at how digital technology is bringing innovation clusters and sciencefocused locations together to create virtual communities.

No sector loves slick presentations and dizzying CGis more than commercial real estate, but behind the glitz and the glamour, there’s long been a puzzling paradox.

Many companies who see themselves at the cutting-edge of property development and management have been desperately slow to digitise their space.

Even when the new generation of giant urban mixed-use schemes appeared, interactions between tenants and owners were still largely based on ad-hoc meetings between their agents and a random sample of occupiers.

Still today, the first sign a landlord often has that someone isn’t happy with their space, the facilities, or the scheme’s wider offering, is when they fail to sign a lease extension and head off to a new location.

Admittedly, WeWork founder Adam Neumann did astutely identify the potential for a new form of community, based on traditional real estate underpinned by digital technology.

Unfortunately, for both his reputation and his bank balance, hubris then saw his supposed hybrid model morph into merely a property company - which subsequently collapsed into bankruptcy after sinking in an ocean of unsustainable debt.

The new approach, as conceived by the developers of the HqO platform, is to realise that

commercial real estate (CRE) only functions best when asset-owners and managers are intimately aware of the myriad experiences of tenants - and in real-time.

The enterprise, which operates in 30+ countries from its HQ in Boston and a European HQ in London’s Borough High Street, uses its app-based offer to help the operators of science parks, innovation clusters, campuses and other people-heavy locations create communities.

Intriguingly, Darren Hill, the MD of HqO’s operations in UK and Ireland, spent more than three years in WeWork’s enterprise sales team, learning first-hand how volatile the CRE sector could be, and learning how best to effectively engage with enterprises and start-ups.

Given that he’d previously honed his skills via spells with CBRE, JLL and Gerald Eve, he is clearly well suited to a company which blends old-school property nous with the latest digital technology to provide insights and data to its clients.

Hill is also refreshingly free of the jargon in which Neumann and many of his peers love to wallow.

“We are a real estate tech company which specialises in experience. Our app brings together everyone within a building, portfolio or campus, and offers them a very wide range of functions, but its core capability is to be a very efficient communications’ tool,” he says.

“Essentially, we bring together and maintain communities across large spaces. For example, if a customer operated multiple clusters where thousands of people were based, their critical need would be for targeted and precise communications across every location.

“We talk to owners and operators of CRE who want to build genuine communities, and a very powerful element of our brand is our back-end data analytics platform, because it delivers tangible and detailed insights into what is happening in their space.”

Above: david hill, Md of operations for hqo in the UK amd ireland

PEOP l E AS PEOP l E

There’s clearly an appetite for HqO’s real estate experience (REX) offering. As of the end of January, its technology was being operated across more than 400m sq ft of space in 32 countries, which equates to around 350,000 individuals using its app on a daily basis.

Investors also appreciate the company’s potential as a disruptive force within the CRE sector, given the ease with which it raised more than $50m via a Series D round last October, lifting its total funding through the $200m mark.

The round was led by Dallasbased Koch Real Estate Investments, whose MD Justin Wilson then joined HqO’s board, a tangible sign of confidence in both its business model and its technology.

Hill believes the platform will prove particularly appealing to operators of large science-based locations, where many tenants will work all hours in labs and only rarely see their nearest neighbours, let alone communicate with the property’s managers or agents.

“Our ultimate goal is to try to remove the traditional landlordtenant dynamic and replace it by a service provider-customer model where tenants are seen as team members. We want people to be seen as people, not simply as units of revenue,” he says.

“One of the biggest challenges facing all operators of real estate is trying to understand precisely what occupiers want from their space, as it’s impossible to effectively adapt, re-fit or upgrade your space when you have no accurate data about customer sentiment.

“Unfortunately, property is the last major sector where many landlords and property managers refuse to digitise their models, which is why it’s so refreshing to meet people who are willing to discuss our model, realise the potential and embrace the technology.

“Operators of science space have many highly intelligent and

educated tenants in their buildings and on their parks, but they’re all on different journeys and at different stages of those journeys, so it’s not easy for them to communicate, let alone to share knowledge.

“At the moment, we are expanding campus by campus, helping to build communities on a relatively small scale, but our aspiration is to create something across the entire life sciences’ industry.”

Above: hqo's reX platform is proven to boost tenant and employee retention while increasing net operating income and driving efficiencies in operating costs

Below: hqo's back-end data analytics platform, delivers tangible and detailed insights into what is happening in the space

DEPT h O f DATA

Hill says most clients are initially attracted by the thought of an intuitive app-based platform capable of operating across multiple locations, but rapidly also appreciate the depth of its data informing them about the experiences and opinions of their tenants.

“We share a passion for giving people a voice, so we’re always looking to engage with owners and operators of real estate who want to discover the sentiment of their tenants, and the more passionate they are, the easier it is to create a productive partnership.

“Traditionally, of course, real estate landlords only gained knowledge into the thoughts of occupiers, if their agents had time to drop in for a brew and ask them face-to-face, but it was a timeconsuming, random and hugely inefficient process.

“Now though, our app will interact with individuals and gradually acquire detailed insights into their opinions, expectations and hopes for their space, the building and the wider community.

“Everything is anonymised, of course, but targeted questions about how individuals think their space helps everyone, because receiving the right level and quality of support goes to the heart of the operator-occupier relationship.”

“Clients gain a very rich pool of data, and with granular detail, about what academics, scientists, researchers and others think of their space, the service provision and their environment. Satisfied tenants are more productive, so the collaboration adds huge value.

“If you build bonds between landlords and tenants, the relationship will work better for both parties. Our app collates sentiment to provide ratings and rankings, so the operator has early insight into issues.

“It’s like having an old-school agent-tenant relationship, but this agent is available 24/7, never misses an appointment and notes even the smallest problem in meticulous detail.”

HqO’s model also includes access to the world’s largest index for measuring employee workplace experience, created by Leesman, and which was acquired in mid-2022.

“When you have access to a global benchmark, you see instantly which issues are important to tenants, which are marginal in terms of sentiment, but also those which are absolutely pivotal, so an individual client can place everything in context,” says Hill.

" SUPPORT

“We can tell clients where their real estate ranks globally, so they can fine-tune their investment strategies, and can also do via sector or geography.

“We could, for instance, benchmark via anonymised data, how each of Oxford’s sciencefocused locations rank against other, or against Cambridge, London elsewhere in the Golden Triangle, or do likewise for schemes providing space of life sciences, or any other niche.”

APPEA l TO A r C

It’s a powerful and compelling vision, and not surprisingly, it proved particularly appealing to Advanced Research Clusters (ARC), which manages science-focused innovation campuses in Harwell, Oxford, Uxbridge and West London.

ARC was launched in Q2 2022, already has more than 10,000 members across those four locations, and with funding from the global alternative asset manager, Brookfield, it aims to become Europe’s leading network of such clusters.

The relationship began by chance - but blossomed from the start.

m

C

“We made an approach and discovered that they were into the final stages of identifying a technology provider. It was serendipity,” recalls Hill.

“They already had a wellconsidered ‘wish-list’ of needs and issues, so conversations proceeded quickly, and we had an immediate rapport with their leadership team, which doesn’t always happen, but was very pleasing.

“They understood the benefits of our app, and the third-party technologies we’ve invested in, and they shared our belief that every element had to be of demonstrable benefit to the end users.

“ARC had an existing app provider across three of their four clusters, but it operated separately for each location, whereas our technology enabled them to build a digital community across all four environments, which cover around 10,000 people.

“Right from the start, ARC was gaining valuable insights through its new engagement model, which they refer to as ‘members of the future’ and now we’re seven or eight months in, the tangible value of the data they are acquiring continues to grow.

“Also, purely in cost terms, it’s more efficient to operate one app across four locations, than to have one for each, and more sustainable. Stakeholder value and sustainability are, of course, crucial for clients operating via a public-private model.” ■

For more information about HqO, please visit: www.hqo.com

Breakthrough looks at issues impacting recruitment decision-making throughout the UK’s life sciences community.

ChAlleNgeS to reCruIt and retAIN

There may be a debate about whether the life sciences’ industry has reached crisis point in its search for talent, but there is no doubt that its post-pandemic pace of growth has created a disconnect between supply and demand.

The intense focus on global life sciences from the moment Covid-19 was identified, and the subsequent widespread use of remote working, made many talented individuals realise they had become as footloose as their employers.

Equally, the increasing demand for AI-enabled technologies, coupled with the need to negotiate a complex regulatory environment, has placed a premium on candidates with the skillset to match the ambitions of potential employers.

Data issued in December by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) underlined the current challenges facing companies and their HR partners.

The number of life sciences businesses operating in the UK had edged up gradually since 2008-2009, as had their scale judged by turnover and employment numbers.

However, the ABPI calculates that their combined turnover surged by 13% to £108bn during 2021-2022 - of which biopharma accounted for 43% - and staff levels were up 5% on the previous year.

Suddenly, many companies found demand for their products and services increasing dramatically and the scramble to retain staff and attract new ones became intense.

The ABPI had highlighted looming skills gaps back in 2019, as such IT-based disciplines as health informatics increasingly required data analysts and specialists in computing science, information science, biology and medicine.

Academics had also warned that many areas of the NHS and social care providers had developed cultural models in which Big Data was separate from digital health.

Inevitably, such challenges were compounded by the upsurge in patient demand during the pandemic, and the boom across life sciences.

Employers, even those with significant resources and a strong brand profile, have been forced to bump up salaries and increase benefits to attract talent, and there are no signs that the gap between supply and demand is narrowing.

In January, a report from MHA (an independent UK firm operating within Baker Tilly International) suggested that the challenges would remain throughout 2024.

Analysis by its lead partner for life sciences and med-tech, Yogan Patel, indicated that more than 70% of UK life science companies were experiencing staff shortages.

“The (potential) consequences would mean a slowing down of the drug discovery and development process, and make it more difficult to run clinical trials,” he says.

“Such delays will also affect the launch of new products and services and increase the cost of developing new drugs and med-tech products.”

Chloe Baverstock, who heads the UK life sciences team at Michael Page, identifies employer flexibility as a potential solution.

“One approach would be to invest more in potential and upskilling. If a company discovered there were very few candidates around with precisely what they required, it would be a great opportunity to hire someone with less experience, but who had great potential.

“Equally, if an individual wants to make a move, but isn’t sure that their current skillset is sufficiently refined, it could be the perfect time to find an employer who would invest in their potential.”

At the specialist life science and engineering recruitment consultancy, ARx, director Luke Blaney believes the scale of demand has created a challenge in itself.

“Many companies are facing the complexity of managing multiple vacancies across different verticals,” he suggests.

“They have limited time to acquire the knowledge required to fill each individual role, leading to a repetitive and

frustrating cycle where the most urgent roles always take precedence and which in turn perpetuates a continuous loop of urgency.

“Niche agencies, such as us, are structured to shoulder the weight of handling such challenges, allowing internal teams to both collaborate with hiring managers and proactively prepare for future vacancies across the organisation.

“In essence, the industry isn’t experiencing a recruitment crisis, but rather a vacancy management crisis, and the constant finger-pointing at recruiters, often observed on social media and marketing platforms, is often misplaced.

“The key is the type of consultancy employed, and the efficiency and effectiveness of collaborative efforts to achieve optimal outcomes for both employers and recruitment partners.”

It’s an intriguing perspective, and though Blaney would be expected to make the case for external recruitment, his opinions are based on a solid bedrock of experience within the life sciences industry.

His father, Terry Blaney, was a former executive VP at Colorcon, a long-term manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, and the founder and CEO of Phoqus Pharmaceuticals, a drug delivery spin-out from Colorcon, which floated on the Alternative Investment Market in 2005.

ARx was founded a year later, and subsequently took space at Sussex Innovation, a business incubation and

innovation network headquartered at the University of Brighton, with hubs in Brighton and Croydon.

Luke thinks many companies should revisit their fundamental recruitment strategies and establish partnerships with two or three established agencies each specialising in different niches of life sciences.

“The strategic division of roles enables hiring managers to concentrate on such crucial aspects as conducting interviews and honing their strategies for upcoming vacancies,” he says.

“Adopting a more streamlined approach allows all parties to focus on their core skills, and ensures a more targeted and informed recruitment process, which is critical in such a dynamic and volatile landscape as life sciences.”

He notes that even major employers have begun 2024 by implementing hiring freezes, often because of the geopolitical and economic uncertainties, but believes that presents significant opportunities for smaller players.

“Companies who remain active in recruitment during this period have been presented with a great chance to attract top-tier talent, by capitalising on the hiring hiatus we are seeing in larger organisations,” says Blaney.

“Many companies are responding to the current uncertainties by reassessing their talent acquisition policies, and the more fleet-of-foot are incorporating more consultancy support as a cost-effective measure to avoid costly and potentially unproductive retainment fees.” ■

For information about ARx, please visit https://arxconsultancy.com

More can be discovered about the UK’s life sciences and pharmaceutical industry via www.abpi.org.uk

Innovation

e xtending the frontiers of UK science and industry

Architects with vision

Architects from the London office of the global NBBJ practice outlined their innovative vision for regenerative lab space to Ian Halstead.

The principles of design have been set in stone - and many other materialssince before the birth of Christ, when a Roman military engineer, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, observed that architecture should always be well-built, serve a purpose and be beautiful to observe.

However, in more recent times, many architects have struggled to pay lip-service to his enduring vision under the pressures of the three Cs of client, concept and cost.

It’s pleasing therefore to encounter a practice which proudly proclaims that ideas are the catalyst for its designs.

NBBJ’s philosophy is the product of decades of experience in international markets, since the firm was founded in 1942, and it now operates from a dozen sciencefocused locations in the USA, UK, India, Hong Kong and China.

The two London-based architects who explained its vision have also accumulated more than 30 years apiece in the sector, so their observation come from a solid bedrock of design nous and client-related experience.

Darius Umrigar, who shares leadership of NBBJ’s science practice with a colleague based in Boston, and leads its HE practice, says the notion of creating lab space designed from the outset to be capable of regeneration began to evolve shortly before Covid.

“We’d spent many years working with academics, scientists, universities, researchers, teaching hospitals, private institutions, pharma clients and government bodies,” he recalls.

“However, we then became immersed in the operations of commercial developers who had pivoted from offices and major mixed-use schemes to look at delivering space for science tenants, but who actually knew very little about science.

“Their major strategic challenge was to commission science buildings designed to be flexible, because they weren’t so naïve as to believe that the boom for life science space wouldn’t at some future point be slowed, by either economic or geopolitical influences.”

David Lewis, who leads NBBJ’s healthcare market team and is partner for its UK operations, offers a telling anecdote from the same pre-pandemic period.

Below: life and Mind building at the University of oxford, which NbbJ has worked on for the past four years

“A major UK developer came to us when science was very much on the agenda, but they didn’t know what type of building they wanted to deliver, what type of tenants they wanted to attract, or whether they should fit-out the building or leave it at ‘shell and core’.

“They hadn’t agreed on the various elements, so they couldn’t put their investment model together, but that was also the springboard for us to start thinking in depth about design flexibility.

“We also believe it’s crucial, not just in science space, that because of high demand people don’t just build stuff which won’t be genuinely sustainable for the long-term.”

r E v E r SIN g T h E T r END Umrigar thinks the regenerative lab approach could help reverse the traditional relationship between the US and the UK with regard to trends in the provision of sciencebased space.

“Boston and Cambridge have, of course, been the epicentre of commercial science development which is grounded in very strong academic expertise for the last 20 years or so, and so the US is usually two or three years ahead of Western Europe,” he says.

“However, they’ve slackened off in terms of delivering new space as their market has fallen, but our market is pretty much the Golden Triangle which remains very buoyant. We’re also always conscious that we need to identify future trends and get ahead of them.

“Some of our key clients are USheadquartered developers with a presence here, funded by venture capital funds, and they’re slightly apprehensive about rolling out projects full-steam at the moment, as it would take two to three years just to deliver the first phase.

“From our perspective, for all those reasons, 2024 is the perfect time to look ahead, and imagine how we could design space which could evolve in the future, and perhaps even change to be suitable for another sector.

“We’ve been reflecting about how space which had been designed for the long-term might best be refitted or repurposed, so that the developer continues to get an acceptable RoI rather than seeing buildings just lie idle and languish.”

His colleague notes with equal passion that the firm’s UK clients are typically more committed to adopting

Net Zero designs than those based in the States and elsewhere.

“In the US, they’re usually talking about large and wide-span structures to allow maximum flexibility within the labs, but the challenge there is around embedded carbon because of the materials, especially the concrete and reinforcements which would be required,” says Lewis.

“However, if you take a Net Zero approach, you can get the carbon element right down, and still have the flexibility which is a more popular approach by UK clients.”

“We’d be more likely to propose a timber-based structure, though of course the jury is still out among most insurers with regard to the use of wood,” he admits.

“One idea within our regenerative lab mindset is to consider the use of wood on a mass scale, even if it’s not used within the lab space, but elsewhere in the building, not least as we’re finding that potential tenants are increasingly focused on the use of timber.”

MODU l E MODE l

Although NBBJ’s regenerative approach is at its early stages, Lewis believes it dovetails neatly into wider debates about architectural sustainability across multiple sectors.

“You can’t afford to design for the short-term, not just around the science sector, but generally. Given the investment, it’s not sustainable in any sense to demolish and rebuild space every time the market mood changes or the appetite changes,” he says.

“It does mean upfront investment, of course, but unless someone wanted to develop space and then flip it – and those aren’t the clients with which we work –we believe they should be

left: darius Umrigar, NbbJ's Science and higher education Practice co-leader right: the regenerative lab model

thinking for the long-term about how the shell can adapt and evolve as the market changes.”

A design approach which already finds much favour with the two colleagues would also be perfectly suited to the regenerative lab mindset.

“It would be rare if one of our projects didn’t have at least twothirds of the building arriving at the site in modules, which is all about speed, cost and the efficiency of construction. Most of the building’s envelope will also be fabricated off-site,” says Umrigar.

“It’s a much more refined approach than in the past, and also far easier to manage the production process inside a factory than on a windswept site.”

“We also like to assemble the various mechanical-electricalplumbing elements off-site, so they can simply be plugged together later, which has been of tremendous benefit from a health and safety perspective,” adds Lewis.

The trend for internal layouts of large science buildings to be designed so tenants from different enterprises and floors come together has been noted for the last decade and more.

The provision of amenities has likewise been driven by the belated realisation by developers and their investors that such space needs to be far more welcoming.

“For my parents’ generation, the separation between work and home was very distinct, but now most science space is used 24/7 and the lab effectively needs to be a ‘home from home’,” says Lewis.

“Science parks, for instance, had traditionally tended to be rather off-grid and with an insular environment, but in the postpandemic era, we’re seeing many of them start to address those issues.”

INSPI r ED B y MEDINA

NBBJ has been pioneering designs driven by human behaviour for more than a decade, via its partnership with developmental molecular biologist and NBBJ Fellow Dr John Medina, author of the provocative and influential ‘Brain Rules’, and a professor at the University of Washington.

“His research and his data about how to stimulate collaboration within a workplace environment is a regular source of inspiration as we look to evolve the regenerative lab concept,” admits Umrigar.

“We’ve been working on and Mind Building at the University of Oxford for the last four years, example, and at the heart of design is the desire to increase engagement between the research and the education departments.

“It’s the largest building in the university’s history, and UK’s largest laboratory designed Passivhaus principles, which reduce its carbon footprint against traditional designs.

“The scheme won’t be ready until the spring of 2025, but incorporated Medina’s analysis into the design, so it’s all about the quality of the environment and you’re never more than storey away from outdoor space.

“Students, academic staff researchers will have fantastic views across Oxford, and can access landscaped terraces and private balconies, so whilst it’s designed for collaboration, everyone can also ‘escape’ from their labs and offices to relax and unwind.

“The space is flexible, sustainable and of a quality which the tenants desire, and which the university is determined to provide.”

He and Lewis are convinced that though the regenerative approach to lab space is radical will require a shift in mindset some developers and their that the concept is viable and appeal to those with long-term strategic visions.

“Not long ago, who imagined that redundant warehouses which had been derelict for years could be successfully converted into desirable apartments and in-demand retail space?”, asks Umrigar.

“I believe we could design such a science building today which could last for 150 years and be refitted several times during its lifetime.”

It might have been a technological glitch, but the sound which accompanied his confident statement sounded rather like the clunk of Roman armour, as the ghost of Marcus Vitruvious Pollio nodded in approval. ■

For more information about NBBJ, its global projects and the work of Dr. John Medina, please turn to: www.nbbj.com

Above: david lewis, leader of NbbJ’s healthcare market team and partner for its UK operations

New m A r IN e m ODel SPAw N e D at O BAN

Breakthrough discovers how an innovative and ambitious project is transforming Scotland’s marine economy.

he town of Oban on the west coast of Argyll has seen different incarnations over the centuries; as a local fishing port, a destination for steamships carrying hordes of Victorian visitors, a wartime communications hub and as the historic gateway to the isles.

Throughout the years, the Atlantic waters which lap, and often crash, against its shoreline have also been irresistible to lovers of

nature - and of just-caught seafood.

Now though, the various strands which have long given Oban its powerful sense of identity are being woven into a new tapestry, in which blue will be the dominant theme.

It’s more than a decade since a UN conference on sustainable development first mooted the idea of a ‘blue economy’ – in which a marine environment was the catalyst for economic growth, employment creation and greater personal well-being.

In 2022, the Scottish government took the concept even further with its Blue Economy Vision, through which the marine

assets of the west coast could underpin transformational and sustainable long-term change of the country’s economy.

It envisaged that its ultimate social, health, economic and development ambitions would be achieved by 2045, in line with its wider Net Zero goals.

The EMSP has been developed over the last 15 years on a phased basis by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), Scotland’s economic and community development agency for the western half of the country.

It has established the Dunstaffnage location as a self-sustaining and growing cluster at the epicentre of research and collaboration linked to economic growth in Scotland’s marine industries.

Above: Mccaig's tower has greeted newcomers to the town of oban for nearly 130 years

EXPE r IENCED E y E

It takes an experienced eye to guide newcomers through the concept and the strategy, and Lucinda Gray is ideally placed as HIE’s head of projects and partnership for Argyll and the Islands to explain EMSP’s growth ambitions.

She begins by setting the park in its local, regional and national context, underlining the financial and strategic commitment of the government and its multiple partners.

“We co-locate with SAMS, Scotland’s oldest and largest independent marine science organisation and an academic partner of the University of the Highlands and Islands,” says Gray.

“A central element of the EMSP’s role is to create an appealing physical environment that encourages and enables collaboration and engagement between businesses, stakeholders and inward investors.”

There’s long been chatter about the triple helix model, which brings academic research, industry and government together to drive business growth, education and innovation, but the theory has visibly become reality here.

Above: the eMSP (european Marine Science Park) has been developed over the last 15 years by highlands and islands enterprise (hie)

left: the first building, Malin house, opened in 2012, attracting marine-focused innovation

“Everything we do at the park is about collaboration, whether that is related to academic R&D and commercialisation, developing space, engaging with tenants and their supply chains, or working with our stakeholders,” says Gray.

“Economic sustainability underpins the business models of companies, entrepreneurs or startups who come here, so we are continually working with them to support the expansion of their products or services to help them prosper and grow.”

Although the concept of the Blue Economy was first noted internationally only after the UN conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro in mid-2012, progress had already been made in the rather chillier climes of Scotland’s western coastline.

“Our first building, Malin House, opened in 2012, attracting marine-focused innovation, including businesses working on the health of maritime species, developers of novel seaweed-based products, carbon cycle research, and consultancy.” says Gray.

Photo credit: rachel Keenan

EXPANDIN g ENTE r P r ISES

HIE astutely chose to deliver flexible co-working and incubation space on short-term leases, as well as a mix of bespoke lab space and office accommodation for existing tenants looking to expand.

Gray proudly points out that two enterprises, which originally began life at the EMSP in incubator space (known as ‘The Moorings’), have since expanded into their own space.

“Patogen, which is a Norwegian fish health company, initially set up with just one staff member in a small office, but then recruited a larger team and moved into bespoke lab and office space elsewhere in Malin House,” she says.

“Ocean Ecology, which specialises in marine ecological surveys and consultancy projects, in both coastal areas and offshore zones, employed just two people when they came here, but demand for its services quickly saw it take up more space.”

The company’s scale and profile has continued to grow, and last September, it expanded again into a larger area of the same building, where it employs around 20 staff.

A third tenant, Tritonia Scientific, was a start-up in Malin House in 2021 and now employs some 20 people focused on advanced underwater visualisation techniques.

Tritonia and Ocean had collaborated on projects since reaching the park, and last year the latter cemented that rapport by taking a majority stake in the former.

“Tritonia harness cutting-edge technology and innovative methods to provide the data which companies need to make effective decisions, and it was very satisfying to see them capitalise on, and benefit from, the park’s collaborative ethos,” recalls Gray.

Malin House is almost full, with 13 tenants employing more than 70 people, and live enquiries about the remaining space.

Gray says tenders are currently out for the construction of a second building, on which work is expected to begin later this year.

The investment required to deliver 1,600 sq metres of new space will be a chunky £8.5m.

It’s even more impressive to hear that funding in the region of £12m is due to come on stream, through the UK and Scottish government-backed Argyll and Bute Rural Growth Deal, for three future schemes that will be colocated within the park.

UHI Argyll is planning a marine industry training centre, whilst SAMS is proceeding with its proposals for a centre to drive new seaweed and shellfish innovation and development, and a purposebuilt STEM Hub.

Even before construction of the EMSP’s second phase gets underway, Gray says two further phases have already been identified in the site’s masterplan

and will come to the market as future development opportunities.

“These investments will drive further economic activity and employment growth here and align with a marine education campus spanning STEM education from primary school to undergraduate and post-graduate level.

As she outlines the proposals, Gray notes that whilst 160 staff are directly employed at SAMS, it’s equally impressive to note the numbers within each academic niche.

Almost 90 students are taking BSc degrees in marine science, alongside 28 on Masters’ courses and 38 who are researching for PhDs, the latter figure which suggests that a goodly percentage will likely be the future creators of start-ups.

For almost 130 years, the most visible artificial landmark that greets newcomers to the town of Oban is McCaig’s Tower, built by a local banker to provide work for local stonemasons, and as a lasting monument to his family.

Thanks to the visionary ‘Blue Economy’ mindset, future generations will also note the imposing scale of the European Marine Science Park. ■

For more information about the EMSP and its partners, visit: europeanmarinesciencepark.co.uk

Photo credit: raymond hosie

Photo credit: rachel Keenan

Peter Oakey, Technical Manager at Weiss Technik UK , gives an insight into how LED lighting is future-proofing plant-growth technology and agriculture.

L Ig HTIN g tH e future

Plant growth chambers offer tailored environments for plants to thrive in, allowing researchers and growers to play the roleof pragmatic caretakers, tweaking temperatures, humidity and lighting to meet plants’ demands.

Researchers can discover more about the relationship between technology and biology, and how they can harness their findings to advance our understanding of plant biology, optimise crop yields and develop sustainable practices. All in all, plant growth chambers provide a fascinating insight into the secrets of the plant world.

“The magic of these chambers is all about finding effective light sources for mimicking real-world conditions. However, as new legislation shapes the landscape and some light sources become unavailable, the quest for sustainable and efficient lighting solutions has become paramount,” says Peter.

“LED technology is rapidly becoming the unsung hero of the plant growth world and is shaping the landscape of modern agriculture. LEDs offer many advantages compared to other light sources, and highlight the pivotal role of innovative lighting technologies in maximising the productivity and success of plant growth chambers, and the future of agriculture.”

Th E Pr OB l EM

The evolution of plant growth technology is exemplified in a project undertaken by Weiss Technik UK for the University of Liege (ULG), Gembloux in 2018.

The project involved the design and build of a specialised controlled environment facility, requiring a chamber capable of simulating natural growth conditions. This was to facilitate an in-depth exploration of plants, animals and microbioata in the agricultural and natural ecosystems models. In particular, the focus was on studying the impact global warming has on the physiology of field crops and exploring interactions with the biotic and abiotic environment.

We originally opted for light-emitting plasma (LEP) lamps to meet the challenging lighting specification.

With a reputation of being an efficient, full spectrum light source, LEP presented a good representation of visible light, crucially incorporating UVA radiation. However, it became apparent that the spectral requirements, particularly in the red, far-red and infra-red domains, necessitated supplemental sources. To address this, monochromatic LED sources were required to supplement the red and far-red light, and tungstenhalogen lamps for the necessary infra-red heat.

Fast-forward five years later, we needed to re-evaluate our initial solution. Recent advancements in LED technology have overtaken the primary LEP light source on all fronts, rendering it obsolete as companies switch to more viable LED alternatives.

Th E S O l UTION

ULG’s problem is to be tackled head-on through the development of the Ecotron chamber; providing them with two new plant growth chambers by late 2024. The Ecotron chamber is strategically designed to incorporate LED technology, which can emulate the spectrum and intensity of light emitted by the original LEPs, providing a viable alternative whilst also overcoming the limitations associated with LEP lamps.

The new Ecotron system incorporates a number of different light sources: daylight LED modules, UV-A LED, far-red LEDs and Tungsten

halogen lamps. By combining these lamps together, the resulting spectrum is within the tolerances allowed by the specification.

By strategically leveraging LED technology, we can not only overcome limitations associated with traditional lighting sources but, can implement a new era of sustainability and efficiency. Whether replicating natural growth environments or ensuring long-term durability, these advancements signal a broader commitment to addressing global warming challenges and investing in the evolving landscape of controlled environments and their sustainability.

“LED grow lights not only represent a leap forward in controlled environment

solutions, but also embodies our commitment to sustainable and efficient practices in the realm of plant growth. This project signifies not just technological advancement, but a brighter, greener tomorrow for plant growth research and agriculture," says Peter.

A D v ANTA g ES O f l ED

In a world where sustainability and efficiency are imperative, LED technology unveils a spectrum of benefits that promise to redefine the way we cultivate crops and envision the future of sustainable production.

Lower energy consumption:

Compared to traditional light sources, LEDs consume significantly less energy, making them an eco-friendly choice. Their efficiency not only reduces

operational costs for growers, but also aligns with the global push towards more environmentally conscious practices.

Longer lifetime: With a 50,000 hour lifespan, LED’s longevity minimises maintenance requirements, translating to cost savings and heightened reliability in plant growth chambers. This stability is vital for research, ensuring consistent conditions for meaningful experiments and reliable results.

Improved homogeneity: Continuous dimming capability allows us to avoid switching to different groups of lamps in stages, preserving the homogeneity throughout the output range.

Simpler control strategy: LEDs enable us to precisely tailor light spectrums for plants during various growth stages. Unlike traditional sources (fluorescent, high-pressure sodium or LEP lamps), LEDs can emit light in specific wavelengths, mimicking the optimal conditions for photosynthesis. This ability enables researchers and growers to provide the exact spectrum needed for optimal growth.

The transformative impact of LED lighting extends beyond research and into global agriculture. Amid challenges like climate change, population growth and diminishing arable land, the efficiency and adaptability of LED-lit growth chambers offer a promising solution. By providing a controlled and optimised environment for plants, these systems empower researchers and growers to explore innovative approaches to crop production, paving the way for a more sustainable and resilient future.

“From laboratories conducting cutting-edge research, much like the one at ULG, to commercial growers seeking resilient and sustainable solutions, the transformative power of LED lighting in plant growth chambers holds the promise of a greener, more efficient, and more secure future for agriculture and the planet as a whole,” says Peter. ■

To find out more about Weiss Technik, visit: www.weiss-technik.co.uk/en

Sharing your success, best practice, and lessons learned

r el AtIONSh IPS key to BIOm e D

BioMed Realty is a big beast which stalks the concrete jungle of real estate looking to identify opportunities to deliver major chunks of lab and office space to life science and technology communities.

With 16.6m sq ft of space in global hubs of innovation, and a development portfolio within sight of 3m sq ft of Grade A space, its scale is evident, as is the financial power it can bring via its parent, Blackstone.

Size isn’t everything though and, as the dinosaurs and their ilk discovered, those who survive and prosper in any jungle only do so via astute decision-making.

BioMed underlined its ability to identify early-stage opportunities in early 2022, when it noted the increasing convergence of life science and technology and paid $600m to acquire 1m sq ft of space at Flatiron Park in Colorado’s Boulder.

A decade earlier, the BioMed making its way into life sciences after the 2008 crash had been very different in terms of scale, but its strategic vision was already acute.

Tzortzoglou recalls that it established its presence in the UK market by hoovering up Granta Park, a 120-acre campus on the city’s southern fringes.

“Many innovative ideas and discoveries had been made here over a long time, and its life sciences’ economy was very resilient, which is what persuaded us,” he says.

“The trajectory of growth was upward and steady, and it was also a time when out-of-town business parks were falling from favour, and people were looking to move back into the city.

“Locations which boomed before the financial crisis were struggling, but this park had established critical mass, there was a strong and varied tenant base and a campus environment had evolved, which we had seen work so well in the States.”

All true of course, though it’s telling that BioMed, which had already crossed the Charles River from its Boston HQ to invest in the fast-growing life sciences location in ‘the other Cambridge’, could judge the park’s potential from afar, when many others couldn’t.

Accurate decisions around geographies and scale are, of course, particularly crucial for a company whose model requires it to simultaneously be a developer, landlord and investor.

Tzortzoglou stresses the importance of both organic growth and new market entrants in propelling Cambridge to its current pre-eminence within Europe’s life sciences’ sector.

“So many big names are here.

AstraZeneca migrated to Cambridge in 2014, after seeing its evolution into a major biotech and pharma hub, and Illumina, Gilead and Pfizer are also present.”

Big brands often take the headlines, but as he points out, start-ups and spinouts have also been hugely influential, for their scientific advances rather than their size or scale.

C r UCIA l CU r ATION

Over the years, BioMed has made significant investments at Granta Park, delivering new space, enhancing the environment and sharply improving the amenities, to the point where it now has a 40,000 sq ft centre offering almost every fitness activity imaginable.

“Investing in real estate is obviously important, but it’s just as important to manage the park intensively and curate the social environment,” says Tzortzoglou.

Biomed Realty’s UK VP of development, Orestis Tzortzoglou, enlightened Ian Halstead about its commitment to life sciences, development philosophy and more.

“You need to design and develop a location to encourage those moments when tenants meet and engage with each other, which deepen the sense of community and hopefully also lead to the exchange of knowledge.”

He believes a key differentiator between BioMed and its peers is the decision to keep the provision of services and support programmes in-house.

“We have the data around energy consumption, tenant feedback about their space, and all the operational information we require when it’s time to modify an existing building or design and deliver a new one,” says Tzortzoglou.

“Relationships are also key. We’ve been in Cambridge for more than a decade and built very strong relationships, not just with our tenant base, but with academic institutions, the life science research institutes, and the supply chains we require to deliver new space.

“You can’t underestimate the value of this network in giving us a competitive advantage, especially in life sciences when the depth of your experience in designing and fitting-out laboratories is crucial.

“The ability to deliver such space to the precise requirements of occupiers is fundamental, and it takes years not to just acquire the knowledge, but also to build a reputation which is built on mutual trust.”

“Suitability is the biggest challenge. We hear a lot about lack of supply, but simply delivering more space isn’t the answer,” he says.

Of course, the most crucial aspect for all developers is to balance demand against supply, particularly in tight markets such as Cambridge, and especially given that the majority of potential occupiers will be footloose.

Start-ups, enterprises entering growth phases and even major corporates may not be entirely agnostic about their future locations, but they certainly have options, whether elsewhere in the UK or further afield.

Tzortzoglou, who calculates that BioMed now has a development pipeline of around 1m sq ft of consented space, offers an intriguingly nuanced take on the supply vs demand debate.

“The real estate requirement of a small enterprise which has just left the incubation space at BRC and wants to grow to 40 or 50 employees will be far different from Illumina, which might want a new wing on existing space and already has 800 staff.

“We always judge if the right space is being provided for the right tenant, and we took the same approach to ensure everything was in place on our campuses to help people return to their labs and offices after the pandemic.

“Numbers are now back to the prepandemic level, which I think has enhanced the benefits of a knowledgesharing environment. Lots of things can be done remotely, but life sciences is always about collaboration and especially within laboratories.”

BACK-END BACKIN g

BioMed underlined its willingness to identify supply issues and invest on significant scale, by setting up a jv with UK Research & Innovation and Babraham Research Campus (BRC) in 2017.

“BRC was very strong on the front-end, and had done wonders for Cambridge over the years, particularly helping smaller occupiers grow,” says Tzortzoglou.

“However, what the campus and the wider market lacked was grow-on space, what we might call the ‘back-end’ of life sciences.

“Cambridge hadn’t previously seen bespoke grow-on space, and so we committed to two large buildings at BRC which delivered 100,000 sq ft of lab and office space, on a speculative basis, known as BioMed@Babraham.

“The capital spent was significant, but we’d analysed the market and saw an opportunity to provide a quality and type of space which wasn’t available elsewhere.”

In February, BioMed, in partnership with BRC, delivered its third building at BRC, around 40,000 sq ft of similar space.

It is also on course during 2024 to complete One Granta, a 100,000 sq ft HQ-style building at the entrance to the 120-acre Granta Park designed for larger occupiers.

Demand for the latter was underlined last October, when the biotech enterprise T-Therapeutics signed for a pre-let of 25,000 sq ft.

BioMed had acquired a 27-acre plot at Granta Park in the autumn of 2021, when it also added the 15 acres of Cambridge International Technology Park (CITP) to its portfolio.

Those deals came with a chunky combined price tag of £850m for the total investment, a considerable sum even for Blackstone, and which emphasised its belief in the future of UK life sciences.

Last November, BioMed underlined its ongoing willingness to invest, after receiving planning permission to bring forward 600,000 sq ft of purpose-built lab space at CITP, for which it is targeting a BREEAM Excellent score.

As he passionately outlines the company’s philosophy, Tzortzoglou recalls the shared excitement felt during Cambridge’s pivotal contribution to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“The IP was discovered at Oxford, but the commercialisation and trials were done here, and it was a fantastic experience to be in the life sciences community and see everyone coming together on the same mission, for the benefit of others.

“What makes Cambridge is the network which has evolved over time, you have serial entrepreneurs and leaders of life sciences who inspire the next generation, and it helps us all to tap into their accumulated knowledge.

Looking deep into 2024, Tzortzoglou admits that the potential impact of geopolitical influences is always hard to assess.

“However, by any metric, Cambridge continues to outperform other life science-focused markets, so whilst there will be some turbulence during the year, we believe it will continue to do so,” he says.

“Life sciences is one of the key pillars of the UK economy, the government tells us its commitment to the sector remains steadfast, and from what we hear, that conviction is shared ‘across the aisle’.

“Regardless, we are not afraid of progressing with speculative space. As my CEO often reminds me, we broke ground on our BioMed@ Babraham scheme at BRC in the aftermath of Brexit, and then delivered the space just as the pandemic reached these shores.”

There is, of course a strong social element to BioMed’s network, and Tzortzoglou admits his favourite watering-hole is the Grade II-listed pub, The Eagle, which has been nestling on the north side of Bene’t Street since the 1660s.

“Cambridge still has the feel of a village, so it’s nice to walk down into the centre and have a pint, and you’ll probably bump into someone you worked with on a project, who will then likely introduce you to someone who might be interested in taking space.”

Given BioMed’s focus on life sciences, it’s pleasingly apt that the tavern was where Watson and Crick once revealed to the lunchtime crowd that they’d “discovered the secret of life”, via their research into the structure of DNA. ■

For more detail about BioMed Realty’s commitment to life sciences, please visit: www.biomedrealty.com

Top: granta Park offers 120 acres of truly inspirational surroundings

Above: the blue plaque at cambridge's grade ii-listed pub, the eagle, which acknowledges the 1953 discovery of the structure of dNA

Below: the gym in granta Park's £23m wellness hub

BIOPh A rm A fIre POwer

There was much talk in the post-pandemic era, following the remarkable advances of vaccine technology and delivery, of a ‘wall of money’ heading for the global life sciences’ sector.

A host of chunky M&A transactions did indeed go through during 2022, albeit not on the scale predicted by equity analysts and other observers of the Big Pharma sector.

Even by the end of 2023, the deal numbers still hadn’t ratcheted up as many expected, with 129 recorded against 126 in 2022.

However, EY’s global life sciences’ team led from New York by its chief deal-maker Subin Baral – says those looking to assess the future strength of M&A activity should focus on the average size of biopharma acquisitions, rather than the volume.

He calculates that the former increased by 83% during 2023 and points out that 72% of M&A investment across the sector during the year came from Big Pharma, up from only 38% during 2022.

Baral says the multi-nationals have stepped back into the dealmaking arena because many of their key products face the loss of patent protection in the next five to six years.

Above: ey global life Sciences Deals leader, Subin Baral

C l I ffh AN g E r

The so-called ‘patent cliff’ has been the focus of much industry debate and corporate uncertainty, as multiple brand-name products see their primary patents expire, allowing rival pharma manufacturers to enter the market with generic products.

Understandably, healthcare providers and national health systems have a positive view of the change, as they look to save vast amounts of money and improve patient outcomes by switching to low-cost generics.

Equally, biopharma manufacturers realising some of their core branded products are about to lose their exclusivity need to acquire new assets if they are to retain their growth trajectory.

The impact on their P&L accounts, if they fail to respond as the cliff edge comes remorselessly into view, would run into the multiple billions.

Research by the management consultancy and technology practice, ZS Associates, indicates that some 190 drugs will go offpatent for the top 10 Big Pharma companies by 2030, of which around 70 are considered blockbusters.

The global head of its pharma and biotech enterprises, Maria Whitman, has calculated that the largest players could face a loss of between $6bn to $38bn, equal to around 50% of the revenues for the top five.

It might not quite be catastrophic, but it’s understandable that she says Big Pharma companies are facing a moment of truth.

EY’s Firepower research looks to identify potential approaches which biopharma companies could adopt to pull back from the cliff edge through targeted M&A.

“Ultimately, although there is no one-size-fits-all answer as to which deals will deliver the best returns, customized integration strategies will give companies a better chance of securing value in the future,” says Baral.

MA r AT h ON O f SP r INTS

He co-authored the report with a colleague who leads EY’s industry markets team for life sciences and healthcare in the Americas, Arda Ural, whose doctoral thesis analysed the catalysts which enabled biopharma companies to succeed in emerging markets.

Before joining EY, Dr Ural led the life sciences M&A practice at a strategy consulting firm for six years and was previously the senior VP for marketing and sales at a start-up biotech company which went public, so he sees the challenge from both perspectives.

“Each transaction is a marathon comprised of multiple sprints,” he says, and it’s an apt reminder for every Big Pharma enterprise about to engage in M&A activity.

“Deals should be treated uniquely, taking into account their investment hypothesis, the motivation and capabilities of stakeholders, the market dynamics at the time of the deal, and the drivers for timing the close of the transaction.”

Dr Ural also points out that volatility in in the global operating environment, alongside the huge impact of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on the US pharmaceuticals market, add layers of complexity to the decision-making process.

The report urges Big Pharma to build more business-focused models, underpinned by the acceptance that no company can excel across all elements of its operations, and should shed noncore businesses and units to focus on its core offering.

Baral believes that companies should simultaneously look to identify the specific therapeutic areas where they can genuinely add value.

“It’s estimated that by 2028, just over a third of the growth in the global biopharma market will have come from oncology alone, which would be around $140bn,” he says.

Although the IRA is expected to lower the price of a wide array of prescription drugs, it does contain exemptions for ’orphan drugs’ which target rare diseases, and the manufacturers of such products have become one of the largest M&A targets.

A lw A y S A w A r E

The EY report identifies the top ten current therapeutic niches expected to show the biggest growth in sales between 2022 and the end of 2028, but also highlights the potential offered by new opportunities.

“Companies need to maintain awareness of game-changing innovations which can disrupt the market, and medications to help

control obesity and improve cardiovascular and metabolic health have been one of the most prominent breakthroughs,” says Baral.

“Trial data has increasingly validated the effectiveness of these drugs, and the high prevalence and unmet need of the conditions they target could see pharma companies rethinking their strategies and directing their firepower towards this space.”

He also urges Big Pharma to find the right balance between acquisitions and partnerships as they look to refine their growth strategies and M&A mindset.

“Companies use alliances to investigate innovative clinical technology platforms and increasingly prominent class of cancer therapeutics known as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and digital technologies,” says Baral.

“If we look at the highest-value areas for alliance investment, those three have been in the leading five since 2020. Once these major opportunities begin to translate into commercial realities, companies will be willing to deploy serious firepower in their direction.

“The ADC market reached this tipping point during 2023, but whilst other opportunities are still maturing, companies also need a mix of alliances and other investments, alongside M&A, to ensure they have access to other innovations.”

Life sciences deals are back – making the right deals in a time of change

Dr Ural also points out that even after identifying their targets, companies must build the right execution strategies.

“The challenge of successful M&A is not only to do the right deals, but to do the deals right,” he says. “To ensure that the transactions create the desired value, everything about the process and the completion must be right.”

“Exactly. The challenge for companies across the sector is to ensure they make the right deals now to deliver lasting value into the future,” adds Baral.

“Identifying the best partners, dealmaking structures, innovations, therapeutic areas, and strategic approaches is crucial, as we navigate a period of upheaval in the global and regulatory environment.

“However, as Dr Ural pointed out, life sciences companies must understand that doing the right deals is a process, rather than a single transaction, so they need the right people, processes, and governance to make each partnership work on its own unique terms.

“Even with the unsettled operating environment we expect to see continue in 2024, the companies which can recognise and then deliver on these dealmaking imperatives will be well placed to secure value far into the future.”

The report by the two colleagues was the 12th edition of EY’s annual assessment which tracks global M&A investment in life sciences.

Its ‘Firepower’ tag was particularly well deserved given their calculation that at the end of December 2023, the global biopharma industry had available firepower of over USD $1.4 trillion.

The ‘wall of money’ has clearly become a mountain, and one which can be seen from the outermost reaches of deep space. ■

Download the 2024 report at: ey.com/en_uk/life-sciences/mergersacquisitions-firepower-report

Allia Future Business Centres in Cambridge and Peterborough offer flexible workspace, meeting rooms, co-working, virtual offices, conference space and networking, all within environmentally focused buildings – creating innovation communities for local businesses and social enterprises.

Our Future Business Centre campus in Cambridge is home to a cluster of Cleantech and Tech for Good start-ups, as well as other small businesses and enterprises focused on positive change. The centre has a spacious and light-filled conference room that seats up to 60 people and can be set up in a varied number of styles to suit your needs and the size of your event. Catering and refreshment options are available from our on-site café.

green Horizons is a new Science and Innovation Park in Luton, at the heart of the ‘Golden Triangle’ between London, Oxford and Cambridge. Situated just 30 minutes from the capital by train, and less than three hours from many European cities via the airport, with easy access to the UK transport network via the M1, it is well connected both locally and internationally.

Green Horizons will be one of the largest Science and Innovation Parks in the region, part of a 45 hectare multi-phase redevelopment adjacent to the airport and just minutes from the town centre. Green Horizons will focus on scaling businesses in the Mobility sector, combining Luton’s heritage in motoring, aviation and aerospace, and its capabilities in precision engineering and manufacturing, with cutting-edge innovation, sustainability and technology. The first Science and Innovation Park designed from the ground up to be carbon negative, Green Horizons is driven by sustainability and innovation.

the atrium at the Allia Future business centre in cambridge

The Cambridge Guildhall centre is a space right at the heart of the historic city for start-ups & community enterprises to work and collaborate. We also have a smaller centre in the centre, dedicated to charities and social innovation.

The centre in Peterborough supports businesses of all shapes and sizes so they can grow and create opportunities for the local community. With a bustling cafe for a quick coffee or catch up, to a large conference suite for 200 people, it’s a great business workspace in the city. ■

To find out more about Allia’s workspaces, email: hello@futurebusinesscentre.co.uk

It is being developed by Luton Rising, a business and social enterprise that is owned by a sole shareholder, Luton Council, for community benefit, not private shareholders. Luton Rising owns London Luton Airport, the DART transport system, and a series of development sites around the airport. Our objective is long-term positive impact on Luton and its community.

It is an exciting time for Luton. A new town centre masterplan, including a new football stadium and residential quarter, a new theatre and green spaces.

Allia Future Business Centre Campus, King’s Hedges Road, Cambridge Tel: 01223 781 200

Allia Future Business Centre Cambridge Guildhall, Market Square, Cambridge, Tel: 01223 781 200

Allia Future Business Centre, 49-51 Norfolk Street, Cambridge Tel: 01223 781 200

Allia Future Business Centre Peterborough, Peterborough United Football Club, London Road, Peterborough Tel: 01733 666 600

London Luton Airport, the UKs fifth largest, is the target of a major expansion scheme to grow from 19 million to 32 million passengers a year, and Luton Council has invested significantly in new transport and social infrastructure. Green Horizons offers investors, occupiers and others an exciting opportunity to be part of our transformation, and future. ■

Find more out about us at: www.lutonrising.org.uk

University of Southampton Science Park - Management & Agency

lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) is one of the UK and Ireland's leading, and most progressive, property consultancies with 29 offices and over 1,000 staff.

A few examples of client projects;

Silverstone ParkAgency & Professional Work Agency, Development Advice and Lease Advisor role. A 285-acre Advanced Engineering Park with over 900,000 sq ft of built space and 1.5 million sq ft of development land still to build on over the next 10 years.

Royal Marsden Hospital

Oak Cancer Centre - Planning

As Science and Technology Park specialists we provide end-to-end property services and advice, with a suite of integrated services including sourcing, planning, funding, facilitating JV partnerships, advising, managing, development, valuing and selling properties. We are passionate about the work we do within the built environment, ensuring communities remain connected, while relentlessly challenging the status quo. After all, it’s our lifeblood to find new ways to solve the biggest property challenges of our time.

rSK is a global leader in the delivery of sustainable solutions.

Our family of more than 200 environmental, engineering and technical services businesses works together to provide practical solutions to some of the greatest challenges societies have ever faced.

We operate in most sectors of the economy, including many of those most critical to future global sustainability, such as water, energy, food and drink, infrastructure, urban development, mining and waste. We have worked on projects involving healthcare, higher education, specialist manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, botanical science, crop technology and more. With our integrated offering across research and development, consultancy and on-the-ground application, we can deliver a complete solution that is unrivalled in the market.

Our structural designers have been involved in pharmaceutical manufacturing suites and our mechanical and electrical engineers have worked at UK science business parks, research institutes and health laboratories. Our ability to engage with client teams through visualisations, thermographic surveys and 3D animations

Secured planning permission to expand capacity for research and create an environment to enable the development of a new and improved model of care. We secured planning permission for a new £70m Cancer Facility at Royal Marsden Hospital following unanimous support at public consultation. Scheme was shortlisted for Planning Permission of the year at the 2020 Planning Awards.

Southampton Science Park comprises over 350,000 sq ft of accommodation set in 75 acres of landscaped grounds. It provides a highly supportive environment designed to facilitate long-term growth for science and technology businesses, from start-ups to multinationals. The offering comprises premium quality office space, laboratories, workshops, incubation and collaboration zones, meeting and conferencing facilities as well as community social activities and business support programmes.

Synlab - Agency & Major Projects Acquisition (off market) on behalf of Synlab UK (Life Sciences) of a 117,000 sq ft building on Blackfriars Road. We were also engaged as Project Managers, Employers Agent, Cost Consultant and Planning Consultant for the subsequent refurbishment and conversion from office to Category 2 and 3 laboratories. ■

Find more out about Lambert Smith Hampton at: www.lsh.co.uk

helps bring sustainability-focused topics to the agenda.

With environmental surveys, energy efficiency assessments, BREEAM, life cycle carbon assessments, biodiversity net gain and nature-based solutions, we deliver a holistic offering to safeguard the environment and meet sustainability goals. We have provided UK-wide airtightness services for specialist enclosures, including for Health and Safety Executive (HSE) categorised containment suites/laboratories that need to be extremely well sealed for pathogen containment and sterilisation.

We have clients across the public and private sectors who we partner with to deliver university teaching laboratories, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, academic and private research laboratories and science parks. ■

Find more out about RSK Group at: https://rskgroup.com

Silverstone Park

A team of design experts from Ridge has been tackling technical challenges, facing site constraints and managing different parties’ agendas at Diamond Light Source’s national synchrotron in Harwell, Oxfordshire.

Ridge fronted a multidisciplinary team led by Liz Sparrow, a partner in their Architecture practice to extend the facility as part of an upgrade programme. As the project begins on site, it’s a perfect opportunity to reflect, not just on the innovative technical journey but the softer skills that have been an essential part of the project’s success.

A bright future for beamline technology

The UK's national synchrotron is a strategically significant scientific facility, based on the Harwell campus in Oxfordshire.

Provided by Diamond Light Source, (a joint venture between UK Research and Innovation and Wellcome Trust), it leads the world in its scientific capabilities, delivering world-changing science.

Th E S y NC hr OT r ON

The synchrotron is a particle accelerator that works like a gigantic microscope, producing light that is 10 billion times brighter than that of the sun. These intense ‘beamlines’ are directed into a series of laboratories, where over 6,000 academic researchers, within 220 companies, use them in a broad range of research fieldsfrom jet engines to fossils, and viruses to vaccines.

£500 M IN v ESTMENT

This impressive facility which has been fully operational since 2007, now requires continuous improvements and structural replacements to assemble, store and ultimately replace this beamline technology. The welcome announcement last year that the

facility would receive a £500 million upgrade fund, represented one of the UK government’s largest single investments in science.

“Our investment will ensure one of the most pioneering scientific facilities in the world continues to advance discoveries that transform our health and prosperity, while creating jobs, growing the UK economy and ensuring our country remains a scientific powerhouse.”

Michelle Donelan Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, September 2023

A DA zzl IN g UP gr ADE

Below: linking the new building and the existing synchrotron is a large, clear span bridge

The first stage of the upgrade is an extension to the facility to assemble and store electromagnetics, providing advanced laboratories and office space – linked to the current facility by a large, clear span bridge. So, the multidisciplinary design team from Ridge set to work closely with people from Diamond Light Source and the scientific end user community. Architects and Engineers came together to solve the structural, mechanical, electrical and civil challenges posed by this complex site. But as with all projects that call for a highly technical skillset, another layer of challenges lay just beneath the surface that required a raft of softer skills.

hA r MONISIN g NEEDS

The scientific end users who were consulted for the synchrotron design extension, are leading experts in their field. They have understandably high expectations of their environment, as it directly affects their abilities to provide cutting-edge scientific research. Their needs played a significant role in the designs.

However, the end user doesn’t hold all the cards when it comes to science park design. Landlords have an agenda to ensure their building leaves a sustainable and flexible legacy. Consequently, the response for Diamond Light Source firmly targeted fabric-first. Ridge reduced operational energy through advanced fabric analysis and passive design solutions. A thermal analysis overcame conflicting requirements to achieve plenty of external views and natural light, while at the same time avoiding solar glare and gain. The façade treatment selected, satisfied these and turned to mixed mode natural ventilation rather than artificial cooling.

The team from Ridge addressed both sets of users’ objectives to strike a delicate design balance.

C OMP l ETE IMME r SION

Commenting on the design, Liz Sparrow said: “Immersion in the science is essential when designing for such a sophisticated live site.

We integrate our thinking into the day-to-day operations, understanding in this case, the extreme sensitivity of the synchrotron machinery to vibrations. We carried out mock tests with the scientists to ensure our design and construction would satisfy each of the end users’ many live site requirements: people, safety, delivery of results, timing of works etc.

“We also adapt the way we present our information when it comes to the science community. We explain our reasoning in an evidential way – essentially speaking their language.”

gEOMET r IC q UANDA r IES

The design had to follow the curvature of the iconic storage ring at Harwell, resulting in a cracked curve and complex steelwork arrangement. The large, clear span bridge linking the new building and the existing synchrotron required a footfall analysis to review its sway.

gOOD NEI gh BOU r S

All these complex and potentially disruptive works inevitably take place in a wider scientific park community. It’s another layer of care that needs to be applied to the design process, to ensure neighbouring operations are able to continue as normal.

lESSONS l EA r NED

As Liz Sparrow’s design team gather their thoughts on this multi-layered project, their top three takeaways are:

1 The soft skills required are equally as important as the technical skills.

2 Becoming immersed in, and having a deep understanding of the science is critical to success.

3 Balancing the end users’ current requirements with a sustainable and flexible future for the building must be a priority.

Sparrow added: “As with any project, it’s been very satisfying to witness a live start onsite early this year, but never more so than for this initial upgrade of the Diamond Light Source. Being an influential force in a team that’s contributing to the UK’s strategic focus on ‘Big Science’ has inspired and excited our design teams.

“We look forward with great anticipation to the next big ideas emerging from Harwell.” ■

Ridge and Partners is one of the UK’s leading built environment consultancies. For more information, please visit: https://ridge.co.uk

More information about Diamond Light Source can be found at: www.diamond.ac.uk

Above: diamond light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the harwell Science and innovation campus in oxfordshire

Impact

Taking care of your people, places and public perception

All eyes on the Arc

Ian Halstead looks at the latest data on the office and lab markets for life sciences within the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.

rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge has existed for centuries, since the latter’s university was established by academics who fled the former after ‘town-gown’ friction had fatal consequences.

Relationships between the powerhouse institutions veer between collegiate and chilly, usually down to the ego of a particular academic and their subject matter.

However, in recent years, the universities, their private sector allies and public sector partners have been engaged in intense competition which makes the annual Boat Race look like a leisurely pastime.

Both cities have global reputations for research in life sciences, and the innovative products and services which come from its labs, but their most pressing need is to satisfy demand from the sector’s start-ups, spinouts and growth-focused companies needing space.

Equally, investors, venture capital funds, entrepreneurs and institutions looking to expand their presence in life sciences require accurate, reliable, and timely market data about the locations to underpin their decision-making about potential investments.

The challenge for Oxford and Cambridge as locations – now and into the future - is to try to

balance demand with supply, and for potential occupiers to decide which might best suit their precise requirements.

It’s not easy to judge the respective strengths of the markets from the outside, but the most obvious source of information is the property consultancy which has established itself as the Arc’s pre-eminent presence for life science and office transactions.

Bidwells achieved an impressive trio of records during 2023 in the Cambridge market, delivering its largest letting of new lab space, securing the largest office take-up across the city, and completing the largest office transaction in the central area.

r OBUST DEMAND

It was timely therefore, as 2024 got underway, that its latest Arc Market Databooks for office and lab space across Oxford and Cambridge were published, offering a wealth of information and analysis.

Max Bryan, a Cambridge-based partner in its lab and office agency team, and head of science and tech, reported that the city’s markets had continued to see robust demand during 2023.

“Total take up of office and lab space was within sight of 700,000 sq ft, year-end availability for the combined office and lab sectors

"T H e CHA lle N ge f OR Oxf ORD AND C A mb RID ge AS l OCATIONS – NO w AND INTO TH e f UTUR e - IS TO TR y TO b A l ANC e D em AND w ITH SUPP ly, AND f OR POT e NTIA l OCCUPI e RS TO D e CID e w HICH m I g HT be ST SUIT TH e IR PR e CIS e R eq UIR eme NTS ."

was 9.4%, and the amount of new space expected to reach practical completion (PC) during 2024 is more than 500,000 sq ft,” he says.

“The pent-up demand for lab space in the cluster, and the advanced discussions already underway, indicate that take up this year will be similarly strong, and more than half of the space expected to achieve PC this year is already committed to.”.

Just over 270,000 sq ft of lab space was leased during 2023, and the highest take-up in seven years was underpinned by 103,000 sq ft of new space at 1000 Discovery Drive, on Cambridge Biomedical Campus, and 40,000 sq ft at B960 Babraham Research Campus.

The appetite from would-be occupiers was underlined when the Discovery Drive space was fully let shortly after PC was achieved, and the Babraham building was fully let even though it was (and still is) months away from completion.

However, although Bryan says the new lab space allowed some long-standing requirements to be accommodated, he also points out that availability is now down to just 3%.

In a footloose and global sector such as life sciences, the figure is of significant concern, and looking at the wider Cambridgeshire market, he calculates that there is still a lab shortfall of 850,000 sq ft.

“Well-located and quality lab space is quickly taken as it hits the markets, so there are still limited options for occupiers in the near and medium-term,” admits Bryan.

“Progress is being made to build a pipeline of consented lab schemes in Cambridge, but they will take time to deliver.

“For the city to compete in a global marketplace, the planning

system must also support the delivery of sufficient housing and infrastructure to go with the new space.”

As both bond yields and finance costs impacted on decision-making by institutions and private equity funds, the county’s investment market stalled during H2 2023, despite solid occupier demand and likely further rental growth.

On the upside, Bryan highlights the upcoming start of construction of a new £70m cancer research hospital on the Biomedical Campus, which will deliver 26,000 sq m of space across seven storeys.

Looking further ahead, he cites Mission Street’s second development phase of The Press, in Foxton, and the start of Abstract Group’s work at the South Cambridge Science Centre, in Sawston, as schemes which will deliver new space from 2025 onward.

However, although Bryan believes the longer-term development pipeline looks healthy, he is the latest in a growing line of observers to highlight the sluggish pace at which new schemes are navigating their way through the planning system.

O v E r IN OX f O r D

His opposite number in Oxford is Rob Beatson, a partner in its business space agency, and from Bidwells’ offices in West Way’s Seacourt Tower, he sees much to be optimistic about in the city’s office and lab space markets.

Take-up across the combined sectors during 2023 was 415,000 sq ft, in line with the long-time average, and prime rents rose in both markets.

Oxford’s lab market trended above average, with just over 210,000 sq ft of space leased,

left:

Max bryan, partner in bidwells' lab and office agency team, and head of science and tech

Below:

one cambridge Square is at the heart of a new, vibrant, urban environment in cambridge

I m PACT

of which more than 90% was to new market entrants, a very healthy sign.

Life sciences also continued to dominate the take-up of space throughout 2023, accounting for just over three-quarters of all lettings by knowledge-intensive businesses.

The largest office deal in H2 2023 was the letting of almost 32,000 sq ft to Welbeck Health, at Jordan Hill Business Park, emphasising the pivotal role of the healthcare sector within the city’s economy.

The location is just north of the Banbury Road/A40 roundabout, with easy access to Oxford Parkway and less than three miles from the city centre, illustrating the importance of transport infrastructure to potential tenants.

Beatson says the slowdown in venture capital investments did temper demand from scale-up businesses looking for more than 10,000 sq ft of office and lab space.

However, he also reports that the pipeline of university spinouts

continues to be healthy and says requirements for space under 10,000 sq ft remains stable.

At the end of the calendar year, just over 130,000 sq ft of office and lab space was under offer, and Beatson highlights two major schemes under construction at the Harwell Campus.

“The Zeta Building will provide roughly 40,000 sq ft of office and lab space, and the first phase of the Tech Foundry will provide up to 140,000 sq ft of hybrid space across two buildings, with individual units starting from 7,000 sq ft,” he says.

Both schemes are on course for occupation starting in Q3 2024, and are being delivered through the Harwell 600 programme, which is scheduled to deliver 600,000 sq ft of new spec space for labs, R&D and technical uses by the end of 2025.

Beatson also notes intriguing research by PwC, suggesting that the success of the city’s life science cluster is primarily home-grown.

Of the 11 businesses identified in its report, nine had their scientific roots within the University of Oxford, or at one of the city’s research institutes.

Bidwells’ own data also finds that all cell therapy requirements and almost two-thirds of gene therapy requirements came from companies born out of the city’s R&D ecosystem.

“PwC’s findings underlined the importance which life science businesses attach to their relationships with academics, clinicians and local suppliers,” says Beatson.

“They also suggest that whilst the arrival of multi-nationals, such as Moderna, is welcome that the future of the Oxford cluster is not reliant on inward investment.”

It’s an intriguing, even provocative, suggestion which will undoubtedly stimulate debate between both locations, and wherever the Arc, life sciences and lab space are being discussed. ■

To discover more about Bidwells, and the operations of its market teams operating across the OxfordCambridge Arc and beyond, visit: www.bidwells.co.uk/who-we-are/ offices/cambridge/

Below: the £1bn AstraZeneca discovery centre at cambridge biomedical campus was opened in 2021

Bridging the skills gap in the UK’s lab industry

Simon

Farnfield

Innovations

,

shared insight with Breakthrough on how the lab industry can narrow its skills gap.

T“By actively participating in the development of educational programmes, laboratories can influence the skillsets of future professionals.”

Farnfield believes the lab industry should offer more internships and apprenticeship programmes.

“Providing opportunities for students to gain practical experience creates a direct pipeline from education to the lab,” he says.

he UK's laboratory industry plays a pivotal role in scientific advancements, cosmetics development and testing, pharmaceutical innovations, general healthcare and other research areas.

However, it currently faces a significant challenge in the form of the skills gap as it struggles, like most other specialist sectors, to recruit and retain skilled workers.

“Bridging this gap is crucial for ensuring the lab industry's sustained growth and maintaining its global competitiveness,” says Farnfield.

“The first step for improving recruitment is by increasing collaboration and establishing partnerships with universities and vocational training institutions to ensure that curriculums align with industry needs.

“Internships and apprenticeships help students develop relevant practical lab skills, whilst allowing laboratories to identify and nurture potential talent.”

Farnfield suggests the industry should be more pro-active in highlighting the multiple career prospects which it offers via targeted outreach and awareness campaigns.

“Career fairs, workshops, online campaigns and trade shows, such as Lab Innovations, can dispel misconceptions about the sector and attract individuals with the right aptitude for scientific roles.”

He also urges businesses to promote a diverse and inclusive culture, to enrich their workplace environment and gain access to a wider talent pool.

Farnfield is in favour of adopting inclusive hiring practices, such as the Rooney Rule, devised in the United States and used in the English Football League to ensure clubs interview ethnic minority candidates for senior-level vacancies.

To enhance retention levels, he says the industry should provide more professional development opportunities.

“Offering training programmes, workshops and certifications enhances the skills of existing staff and demonstrates a commitment to their career growth,” says Farnfield.

“We can help the retention process at Lab Innovations with our free-to-attend theatre programmes, which give people the opportunity to hear from the industry’s leading experts and earn CPD points.

“Where possible, employers should also offer flexible work arrangements. Providing such options as remote working and flexible hours can enhance job satisfaction and contribute to retaining skilled professionals, which is particularly important in the postpandemic landscape where remote work has become normalised.”

Farnfield believes that adopting his suggested measures will allow the UK's laboratory industry to not only bridge the skills gap, but to thrive in an increasingly competitive global landscape. ■

Register your interest for Lab Innovations 2024, taking place at the NEC in Birmingham, on October 30 and 31, at: lab-innovations.com/register-your-interest

, event director for Lab

The transformational power of data

Paav Gandhi, Head of Product at Accessia, explores how using technology to harness the power of people-attributed data in buildings and workspaces can improve efficiency, optimise spaces, and deliver a better experience to users and tenants.

imagine your typical day at work. We have countless interactions with our physical workspaces, be it using meeting rooms, working in a lab, catching up with co-workers in the kitchen or simply sitting at a desk or workstation. The way in which people use a workspace can tell us so much about how they work, and what works for them.

Applying that intelligence can help improve the everyday in our buildings and spaces for the people that use them, increasing engagement, optimising areas, and helping everyone get more from the time spent in a space.

It feels like a missed opportunity that so many of these interactions go unmapped, and that we only discover areas for improvement when it’s often too late to implement positive changes. It’s not unusual (and not optimal) to only capture a few data points, such as entry and exit times or visitor sign-ins and room bookings. And, more often than not, that data sits siloed somewhere, untouched and untapped.

Implementing the right technology helps to connect the dots, providing real-time, actionable intelligence into how spaces are used.

gETTIN g MO r E fr OM SPACES

Science Parks, with their mix of laboratories, offices, communal areas,

and other mixed-use spaces, are particularly complex workplaces, with a need to meet the ever-changing requirements of a uniquely broad spectrum of tenants and users.

Predicting needs and allocating resources, whether it’s cleaning services and utilities or something as fundamental as floorplans and layouts, can often end up being more guess work than a science. And the tendency is to err on the side of caution, leading to overprovision of services, consumables, and even spaces. But how many rooms or communal spaces sit empty every Friday? How often is an unoccupied meeting room being lit, heated, or cooled? How much time or money is being wasted on cleaning areas that haven’t been used?

This is where data collection can provide invaluable insights into space utilisation, allowing for efficiencies in overall functionality to be discovered and acted upon.

"D ATA -

1Space utilisation and preferences

Collecting data on who uses which spaces and how they are used helps identify trends and patterns. This data can reveal which areas are frequently occupied and which are not, helping to identify where to make improvements and adjustments. For example, if a particular lab or collaboration space is in more demand than another seemingly identical lab, the most frequent users of that lab can be approached to better understand their needs and preferences. Adjustments and enhancements can then be made as needed.

Over time, this insight into how spaces are used can help predict future usage and the appropriate allocation of resources, helping to proactively meet evolving tenant needs.

2 Energy efficiency and sustainabilit

y

Efficient energy management is not only crucial for cost savings but also aligns with global sustainability goals. Collecting data on which rooms are used and when can help identify energy consumption patterns within buildings and uncover opportunities for optimisation. It could be as simple as setting rules to not heat unoccupied spaces. Or being able to know that a room is booked for a certain number of people, all of whom are in the building, so that room will likely warm up naturally and not require as much heating.

Implementing smart building technologies, driven by data insights, can help to regulate energy use more effectively. For example, by using

technology to detect occupancy levels and automatically adjusting lighting and climate control systems accordingly, saving energy and money.

3 Tenant satisfaction and well-being

Happy tenants are more likely to stay and contribute positively to the Science Park community. Data on tenant preferences and behaviours in the workspace provides a deeper understanding of the user community. This information can be used to tailor amenities and services to better support tenant satisfaction and well-being.

Data-driven insights can identify areas where improvements are needed, whether it's upgrading shared facilities, enhancing security, or reconfiguring layouts.

4 Informed decision-making and future planning

Naturally, the accumulation of building intelligence over time helps identify trends. Comprehensively

analysing historical data informs both decision-making and, critically, forecasts.

Data-powered foresight allows Science Parks to stay ahead of demand, ensuring that infrastructure and resources are aligned with the evolving needs of tenants. It also facilitates strategic planning for expansions, renovations, or the development of new facilities.

The insights gained from data collection, enabled by smart technology, not only optimise space utilisation but also help contribute to energy efficiency, tenant satisfaction, and informed decision-making.

The future looks bright for organisations that can adapt, innovate, and leverage the wealth of information that lies within their walls. ■

To find out more about how Accessia can help everyone get more from your spaces, visit: https://accessia.com/UKSPA

Trends

q uantitative and qualitative analysis of the innovation ecosystem

I NNOvAt ION o F t HE A er IA l k IND

Two pioneers of digital aviation technology spoke to Ian Halstead about the science and the strategy behind their work.

Drones have fast become an integral element of everyday life, whether it’s coverage of conflict zones, the latest prime-time TV crime drama or documentaries on the global impact of climate change.

Uncrewed aerial vehicles, as the industry calls them, first hove into the public consciousness when reported sightings near Gatwick in December 2018 led to the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and impacted the travel of some 140,000 passengers.

The resultant chaos was the catalyst for aviation authorities to focus on how airports could best be protected against illegal drones and their operators identified.

More recently, research by McKinsey urged airports to embrace the opportunities offered by advanced air mobility (AAM) and integrate them into their infrastructure.

The outcome was Project HADO (high-intensity autonomous drone operations), a consortium led by Reading-based Operational Solutions Ltd (OSL) with Cranfield University as its academic partner.

The initial focus was on AAM traffic inside airport boundaries, followed by the evolution of surveillance technologies to identify and monitor such activity outside the perimeter and also beyond the visual line of sight.

HADO’s ultimate aim is to develop, test and deploy fully automated unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations at Heathrow.

“Enabling such autonomous operations in intensely busy areas is key to unlocking drone-enabled economies and a future driver of smart airports and smart cities,” says OSL’s chief technology officer, Mark Lupton.

“We believe that HADO has the potential to unlock significant commercial opportunities in the UK.”

fly IN g A h EAD

OSL was a pioneer of anti-drone technology, but it was little used outside military operations until the 2019 sightings, as its chief financial officer, Dan Carey explains.

“The company had the experience and knowledge to design a system to protect Heathrow, and later won a similar contract with Gatwick,” he recalls.

“We then took on £8m funding from BGF, enabling us to double staff numbers, significantly increase our R&D spend, which was almost £3m during 2023, and boost our in-house resources, so we now have 30 developers, testers, analysts and project engineers.

“We also enhanced our future capability in UAVs by acquiring Nexus Nine, which had a strong track record for testing and training, and rich experience about regulations and procedures in the drone space.

“We then set up HADO with Innovate UK and Cranfield, which is a ‘sand box project’ to develop the use of AAVs within a very dense traffic environment, and Heathrow was the obvious choice to work with as the country’s busiest airport.”

Intriguingly, OSL used its expertise to move into a new sector last November, designing and deploying a service to secure Wembley from drone attacks, which could both detect incoming flights and identify the location of their operator(s) - in real time.

“They were our first major customer in sports and events. Essentially, we took technology designed for airports and produced a miniaturised version suitable for much smaller spaces and venues,” says Carey.

Cranfield was the ideal academic partner for HADO, given the established presence of its digital aviation research and technology centre.

DARTeC covers three of the university’s core strategic themes, transport systems, aerospace, and manufacturing and materials.

Among the research challenges it is addressing are the integration of drones into civilian airspace and increasing the efficiency of airports through technological advances.

Prof. Antonios Tsourdos, who has headed Cranfield’s centre for autonomous and cyber-physical systems since 2012, says the HADO research is roughly 50% completed, ahead of its move into the demonstration phase.

“We are looking at how we can enhance and evolve Heathrow’s infrastructure to integrate the operation of high-density drone activity,” he says.

“The use of drones at such locations has implications for services which are already in place, so management need to know how the introduction of drones, or other AAM devices, would impact on their airspace.

“We also need to ensure we don’t have illegal use of the airspace by drones controlled by unknown players, and so OSL will be providing counter-drone services.”

The technological challenges are significant because three systems would be operating in the same space, utilising information and data taken mostly from the same sensors and infrastructure.

“There has to be integration at some level, but equally, it can’t be of such

Above: the digital Aviation research and technology centre (dArtec) at cranfield University is spearheading the UK's research into digital aviation technology

Below: Professor Antonios tsourdos, head of the centre for Autonomous and cyber-Physical Systems at cranfield University

intensity that it could overwhelm the air-traffic controllers,” says Prof Tsourdos.

“We are developing a synthetic environment here which could be used within Heathrow’s airspace and have begun meeting the different players so we can then incorporate their different software interfaces into that structure.

“We are also analysing their interfaces to see how best to integrate them into the airport’s existing architecture, so we can validate them before creating the new environment. Essentially, we are de-risking the process.”

'DI g ITA l T w IN'

Prof Tsourdos and his four-strong research team are working on a ‘digital twin’ concept to connect the physical world to its digital counterpart via multiple separate layers and digital elements to support enhanced mixed-reality functionality.

The model would allow virtual obstacles to be injected into physical test environments, blurring the boundaries between virtual environments and reality for safe, flexible, efficient, and effective testing of UAS operations.

TR e NDS

Once trialled and tested, the new environment will operate via ‘plug and play’ across all the airport’s operational systems.

“If we can devise a system to allow drones to operate safely and securely in high-density airspace, it will open up a number of options for automated services,” says Prof Tsourdos.

“These would include inspections of runways, buildings, secure areas, perimeter fencing and whatever else the airport operator might need.”

Heathrow spans more than 12 sq km, so removing the current need for such services to be carried out by large numbers of staff in vehicles, would make its operational model significantly more sustainable.

Cranfield has also established a knowledge-transfer partnership (KTP) with OSL, which is running smoothly for the benefit of both.

“Two of our associates are working with them on the development of their software solutions which track drones, classify their operations and identify potential dangers which they could pose,” says Prof Tsourdos.

“They are also looking to identify potential study topics to be subsequently taken on by students on master’s courses. They can’t develop a solution in four or five months at OSL but can certainly discover if the work has potential to deserve further study and research.”

“It’s working well. They are embedded with us to work on developing leading-edge algorithms within a business environment and can reach back to access the latest academic thinking from Cranfield,” says OSL’s Lupton.

“We’re also working closely with Antonios and his team to define MSc study topics and support various student activities and presentations.”

The harmonious collaboration also has longer-term career benefits for the students, which Prof Tsourdos appreciates.

“We work very closely with government departments and all our industry partners to ensure that our research degrees in particular are relevant to industry and will have real-world applications.

“Our students aren’t just discovering more about the subject of their research; they’re learning how to interact at a very practical level with the world of business.

“For instance, they will be taking specific requirements, aims and objectives and then going back to industry with potential solutions which could be developed.

“These are very useful skills which will be of use to them outside the university if they look to develop careers working within, or for, industry, and will certainly help them with their job search.”

Just as OSL used its expertise in drone technology to win work from Wembley, academics within Cranfield’s DARTeC are using their knowledge and data to collaborate with external partners.

“We are, for example, working with Milton Keynes City Council about the infrastructure which needs to be in place within a small city to enable drones to provide services,” says Prof Tsourdos.

“They could be used for building maintenance, traffic management, traffic flow, hospital deliveries and other aspects of a local authority’s operations.

“There would need to be investment in sensors, communication and control systems to enable the safe deployment of drones, and urther ahead, such technology could also be integrated with the infrastructure required for the introduction of autonomous cars.”

Before the passion of Prof Tsourdos can spill over into another very interesting, but equally complex subject though, it’s time to bid farewell to Cranfield and wish him and OSL all the best on their HADO pathway. ■

To discover more about OSL, please visit: https://osltechnology.com

To learn about the work of Cranfield’s DARTeC, please visit: https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/ centres/digital-aviation-researchand-technology-centre

Mace, a leading international construction and consultancy company, has published an insights report ‘Closing the Circle’, and hosted a panel event, to explore the need for a circular economy within the built environment and discuss the actions needed to achieve it.

Rob Lemming, Managing Director of Public Sector & Life Sciences for Mace Construct, shares the key findings and what this means for UK science parks.

Activating a circular economy in the built environment w

hen planning a new build, retrofit or refurb project, taking a circular approach is increasingly important to achieving Net Zero targets, sitting alongside energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

Instead of the current linear way of working (take, make, dispose), adopting circularity means recycling or reusing materials and components within the industry and keeping the manufacturing of new raw materials to a minimum, thus reducing embodied carbon.

Ev O lv IN g TO CI r CU l A r IT y

Globally, the built environment uses 50% of raw materials, accounts for 60% of materials waste and 40% of carbon emissions. In the UK it generates over 62% of the country’s waste.

Policymakers know that reducing carbon emissions from the built environment is a critical route to achieving Net Zero by 2050. More stringent environmental regulation and requirements will be placed on future developments. Indeed, this is already happening.

Last July, Marks and Spencer’s planning permission to demolish and rebuild flagship buildings on London’s Oxford Street was

right: rob lemming, Managing director of Public Sector & life Sciences for Mace construct

C OMP l ETE S y STEM C h AN g E

rejected by Michael Gove, with embodied carbon a contributing factor. While the retailer is expected to appeal, the ruling clearly indicates the Government’s standpoint.

Investors are also increasing pressure for a greener path and, on a practical level, moving to a circular model should be more resource efficient and provide better resilience against external shocks such as supply chain disruptions and unanticipated price spikes.

There’s huge opportunity to divert steel, concrete, timber, masonry, facades and fit-out materials from landfill for reuse in new structures. Some materials are currently easier to reuse but the industry’s increasing commitment, experimentation and logistics planning will help the shift from the linear model.

Circularity is gaining pace, with materials science R&D and case studies showing circularity in practice. But a structural and behavioural system change is needed across the entire value chain. Lack of information, infrastructure and incentives are all barriers to a circular economy for which industry, academia and policy makers must find joint solutions. Key challenges and actions from our report and panel event are summarised below.

Infrastructure requirements

• Financial incentives such as allocating funds for circularity apprenticeships or reducing S106 requirements; and changes in VAT policy which currently disincentivises reuse.

• Investment in materials stores and recycling plants.

• Online marketplace enabling developers to buy and sell materials salvaged from previous projects.

Policy incentives

• Build circularity requirements into local government planning policy.

The Greater London Authority’s London Plan incorporates circularity with guidance that materials be treated as resources and existing buildings prioritised over demolition.

Trusted information

• Suitable warranties on reused products, and a unified accreditation system to provide quality assurance.

• Consistency in how we measure and report on carbon, to help institutional investors demonstrate their investments’ ESG credentials. There’s help here from The Net Zero Building Standard (UK Green Building Standard) which sets a consistent definition of measuring carbon in a building.

• Incentivise ‘materials passports’ - digital statements detailing the materials that have been used in buildings. It’s gaining traction but not widespread yet.

• An accreditation scheme allowing for transparent sourcing of circular materials; perhaps circularity could be incorporated into BREEAM?

Knowledge and materials

• Limited knowledge and capability around circular practises are compounded by cost and speed to market disincentives. Time and resources are needed to understand how a building was put together years so it can be disassembled or adapted.

• Materials and components to be designed for reuse from the outset. Many suppliers are working hard to offer products made from reused material and for further reuse but a scale up is needed.

lEA r N fr OM lONDON

The situation is particularly urgent in our cities. Despite covering just 2% of the world’s surface, cities contribute to half of all resource consumption and 70% CO2 emissions.

Our report looks to establish London as a global leader in circular construction processes. The capital is leading the UK in planning policy, has a highly innovative and collaborative construction market, a huge amount of construction activity in a small geographic area and clients able to pay a premium for a greener project.

Currently, 90.2% of London’s waste from demolition and construction is recovered for some form of reuse or recycling. While this sounds good, in reality very little gets back into the supply chain for reuse in the built environment. By adopting more circular approaches over the next decade, London could keep 13.8m tonnes of materials within the supply chain. That’s £1.25b of economic value and 11m tonnes carbon saving (3.5% of the UK’s yearly emissions).

w h AT NEXT ?

Ultimately a rethink is needed in the way we use resources and embrace new business models with a shared commitment to transform the industry.

As UK science parks play a pivotal role in advancing research and development within their regional economies, they are well placed to champion circularity, collaborating with local government, investors, business and supply chain communities to bring about change. ■

If you’d like to discuss this topic further or visit our Circularity Exhibition, get in touch: Email Robert.lemming@macegroup.com or call 07769 257 854.

To read the full Closing the Circle insights report, please visit: www.macegroup.com/circularity or click the banner below.

Above: Mace’s circularity exhibition at its global hQ in london is running until April. developed in partnership with the company’s supply chain and consultants, the exhibits reframe waste as a resource and looks at new ways to reuse the materials

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